Social Cognition Quiz- Social Psychology Chapter 3

Nisbett and his colleagues conducted a study on graduate students in different disciplines to determine factors related to statistical reasoning. They found that _____________ appeared to influence how accurately and logically they reasoned through everyday problems.

training in statistics

In a study by Correll et al. (2002) described in the text, people played a video game in which they saw white and black people holding either a gun or a cell phone, and had to press either a "shoot" button if the target had a gun or a "don’t shoot" button if the target had a phone. People made the most errors in

shooting black men who had phones.

In the self-fulfilling prophecy, a perceiver has a(n) ________ that affects the ________ of the target of perception.

expectation; behavior

Why do schemas differ from culture to culture?

Cultures differ in terms of what is important and relevant to the people who live there.

According to the authors of your text, people are likely to quickly categorize people they have just met. This is due to people’s reliance on

schemas.

A stereotype can also be considered a(n) ________ about members of a social group.

schema

Based on information from the authors of your text, when we meet someone new, we are likely to

categorize this person based on our schemas and other people we know.

Recall that Harold Kelley (1950) told some college students that their guest lecturer was a warm person, and others that he was a cold person. The visitor then lectured for twenty minutes, and behaved in a very arrogant way during the lecture. When students evaluated the lecturer,

students expecting a warm person rated the lecturer as funnier, but no less arrogant than students who expected a cold person.

Blair’s co-worker, Susan, asks her, "Am I a good employee?" Blair hadn’t really thought about it before, but using the availability heuristic, which of the following thought processes is she most likely to have?

Blair recalls the last few times she’s seen Susan do a good job, and tells her yes.

The text discusses three reasons why schemas can become accessible. Which of the following is not one of these reasons?

base rate information about a person

When Jana was chiding herself for losing her favorite necklace and reciting a list of all the things she could have done to prevent the loss, her grandmother said, "Now, Jana. Don’t cry over spilled milk." In essence, Jana’s grandmother was advising her to

stop engaging in counterfactual thinking.

Korsakov’s syndrome is a neurological disorder more closely associated with abnormal psychology than with social psychology. Why would the authors of your text describe the symptoms of Korsakov’s syndrome and provide Oliver Sacks’s description of his encounter with a patient suffering from that disease? This discussion illustrates

the importance of schemas in helping humans make sense of their experiences

Self-fulfilling prophecies can best be defined as

when people inadvertently make schemas come true by the way they treat others.

In short, counterfactual thinking can be described as

mentally reconstructing the past.

In which ways is counterfactual thinking a controlled process? It is

effortful and conscious.

A teenager wants to borrow the family car to go to an out-of-town concert. Her parents resist the idea. Based on the results of Schwarz et al.’s (1991) study on the effects of generating different numbers of examples of behavior described in your text, the teenager in question is most likely to view her parents as stubborn and unreasonable when they say to her,

"Give us one reason why we shouldn’t worry ourselves to death."

According to the authors of your text, when people use automatic processes, they tend to size up new situations

quickly and accurately.

________ processing is nonconscious, effortless, and unintentional, whereas ________ processing is conscious, effortful, and intentional.

Automatic; controlled

Based on the study by Harold Kelley (1950) presented in your text, if you were to describe yourself to a blind date as being witty, how would she be most likely to view a slightly sarcastic comment you make?

as being funny and witty

Tiffany has a hard time trusting other people her age because she believes they are irresponsible. Accordingly, when she makes dinner plans with one friend, she also makes backup plans with someone else, and she goes to one or the other. Her friends soon in turn begin to "blow off" their arrangements since it is not clear whether or not Tiffany will show up. Tiffany has created

a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You wrongly assume that because of Linda’s short hair, unshaved legs, and liberal views she is a political activist. Your (incorrect) assumption was based on

the representativeness heuristic.

In the Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) study on the self-fulfilling prophecy, who did teachers like the least?

The teachers liked all students about the same.

According to the authors of your text, priming

is automatic and nonconscious.

The textbook contrasts the Amadou Diallou case (described in the introduction to Chapter 3) with the Richard Wilkins case, which illustrates racial profiling. The two cases are used as illustrations because

the Diallou case illustrates automatic processing, while the Wilkins case illustrates controlled processing.

Researchers Miyamoto, Nisbett, and Masuda compared photographs of city scenes in the U.S. and Japan. They found that on average, city scenes in Japan contained more

objects and information.

Recall that Higgins, Rholes, and Jones (1977) had participants memorize a number of words before reading an ambiguous passage about a character named Donald. The words participants read influenced how they interpreted Donald’s somewhat ambiguous behavior. The take-home message of this study is that thoughts have to be ________ before they affect our impressions of the social world.

both accessible and applicable

If accurate judgments are our goal, we should use base rate information instead of the representativeness heuristic when

we lack specific information about the person.

Tom and Julius are both in line for a movie, but it sells out before either of them can get tickets. Tom is the last person in line, but Julius is directly behind the person who got the last ticket. Based on the idea of counterfactual reasoning, why will Julius be more upset than Tom?

It was easier for Julius to imagine how he could have gotten a ticket.

Your roommate questions how charitable you really are. She says to you, "Give me just one example of the last time you gave money to a homeless person." Odds are that her challenge will convince you that you really are a generous person. Based on research by Norbert Schwarz and his colleagues (1991), why is that?

It’s easy to bring to mind one example that supports your self-schema.

According to the authors of your text, how is it best to characterize humans as social thinkers?

We have amazing cognitive abilities, but there is room for improvement.

Based on the study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text, if you pass by several churches, then a block or so later a homeless person asks you for change, how are you likely to behave?

You would be more likely to give them money.

In a study on facilitated communication, headphones were used to ask the communication-impaired person one question and the facilitator a different question (unbeknownst to the two parties). Then the answers provided by the communication-impaired person with the help of the facilitator were examined. Findings indicated that

Correct the technique was ineffective; the facilitators answered the question they were asked but believed they were answering the question asked of the others.

According to the authors of your text, what is the primary reason people often rely on a variety of mental
shortcuts? We’re

confronted with an overwhelming amount of social information.

When Matilda met Joe, she instantly categorized him as a nerd because of his appearance and intense interest in technology and mathematics. Matilda’s categorization is an example of her use of

schemas.

Which example best describes the representativeness heuristic?

"To decide if someone is a lawyer, I compare that person’s characteristics to the characteristics of the typical lawyer."

Warren believes that Tom is an outgoing, gregarious person. "Whom did you hang out with this weekend?" Warren asks Tom. "Tell me about all of the fun things that you have planned for the summer," Warren continues. Although Tom is usually rather quiet and reserved, he responds to Warren in an outgoing, friendly manner. This is an example of

a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Adele is from France, where rabbits are eaten regularly. She can tell you the most tender part of the rabbit, how long to cook one, and how big a rabbit you would need to feed five people. Marsha is from the United States, where rabbits are pets, and bring colored eggs to children in the spring. She hasn’t a clue about how to cook one, even if she wanted to. This example best illustrates

the cultural determinants of schemas.

A study by Bargh and Pietromonaco (1982) described in the text flashed words such as hostile and unkind on a computer screen so fast that participants only saw a flash of light and did not consciously see the words. This study demonstrated that priming effects

can be automatic and nonconscious.

After seeing the movie Fargo, Craig firmly believes that Minnesotans and North Dakotans are the goofiest people in the United States. You believe that Minnesotans and North Dakotans are no goofier than people any place else, and you would like to get Craig to change his judgment. To do this, you might

ask him to consider the opposite point of view.

The availability heuristic is based on the principle of using ________ as a cue to probability.

accessibility

Psychologists distinguish between two types of cognitive processing. ________ processing is nonconscious and unintentional, whereas ________ processing is conscious and intentional.

Automatic; controlled

Kayla has been under a lot of stress from school, her sorority, her friends, and her significant other. According to information about thought suppression and mental health, how should Kayla deal with the stress?

by talking it all out with a friend over coffee every few days

The cocktail party effect refers to

the automatic shift in attention when you hear your name, but were already engaged in a conversation.

In trying to decide which of two classmates is smarter, you use the rule, "the faster people talk, the smarter they are," so you choose the classmate who talks faster. You have applied a ________ to decide who is smarter.

judgmental heuristic

Diana currently has a goal to lose fifteen pounds by the summer, and she notices that lately her friend, Sarah, hasn’t been eating much. Based on your text’s discussion of how current goals can affect accessibility, how is Diana most likely to interpret Sarah’s behavior?

Sarah must be on a diet too.

In a controlled experiment, Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) informed grade school teachers that some of their students (called "bloomers") would show great academic improvement in the upcoming year. In reality, the "bloomers" were chosen randomly by the researchers, and were no smarter than any of the other students. Which of the following best describes the results of this study? At the end of the year,

bloomers improved more on an IQ test than did non-bloomers.

Nutz and Boltz, Inc. employs 100 people; 80 are lawyers and 20 are engineers. Albert, a lawyer at the company, is quiet, likes puzzles, and carries a calculator. Most people, when asked whether Albert is a lawyer or an engineer, will guess that he is an engineer. These people are using ________ to make this faulty guess. A correct guess would have been made if they had used ________.

the representativeness heuristic; base rate information

The first day of class, Maria absolutely loved her new social psychology professor, but Daniel couldn’t stand her. If their interpretations were influenced by schemas, in all likelihood, Maria had heard ________, whereas Daniel had heard ________.

that the professor was great; that the professor was horrible

Based on Cornell and colleagues most recent work, presented by the authors of your text, there is one study which indicates that police officers are _________ likely relative to nonofficers to let stereotypes guide their decision to shoot someone.

less

Recall that Harold Kelley (1950) told some college students that their guest lecturer was a warm person, and others that he was a cold person. The visitor then lectured for twenty minutes, and behaved in a very cocky, arrogant way during the lecture. All students viewed the lecturer as arrogant, but differed in their assessments of how humorous he was. These results suggest that schemas are

more likely to be used to interpret ambiguous behaviors.

Consider the results from a study by Miyamoto and colleagues in which participants viewed either photos of U.S. city scenes or Japanese city scenes, then were asked to detect differences between two similar pictures. Based on their findings, if an American was touring in Tokyo, Japan, which of the following aspects of a picture would she be most likely to pick up on?

background

When asked to guess whether Mark is from Montana or California, you guess California because more people live in California. You have used ________ in making your decision.

base rate information

In Wegner’s theory on the consequences, the "ironic" process is the ________ process because ________.

monitoring; it makes one think about what one doesn’t want to think about

We are most likely to rely on schemas when the situation we confront is

ambiguous.

Professor Chadwick is young and looks even younger than his years. He dresses in jeans, grubby tennis shoes, and Hawaiian print shirts. One day in the hallway, he strikes up a conversation with a student. During the conversation, the student begins to complain about the poor teaching of the faculty in the department and about the bad things he’s heard about the course that Professor Chadwick teaches. Needless to say, when the student finds out he was actually talking to a professor, he feels embarrassed and avoids Professor Chadwick. What is the moral of this story?

Schemas may make us efficient, but sometimes at a cost in accuracy.

According to the authors of your text, a good metaphor of human thinking is to consider people to be

flawed scientists

According to the text, racial profiling (when the police and security officials stop pedestrians, motorists, and airline passengers on the basis of their race), is probably due to ________ because ________.

controlled processing; there is sufficient processing time and motivation for such decisions

Which of the following is not true about the difference between automatic and controlled thinking? Automatic thinking tends to be ________, whereas controlled thinking tends to be ________.

inaccurate; accurate

The authors of your text report that a college professor asked students to list either two or ten ways to improve the course. Because students used the availability heuristic, which group of students gave the professor the highest course ratings overall?

the students who were asked to list ten improvements

The text suggests that racial profiling is not always automatic and in some cases is part of a(n) ________ process.

controlled

Reasoning based on the ease with which we can bring something to mind involves the use of the ________ heuristic.

availability

When asked a question during Trivial Pursuit, Sylvia is certain that her answer is correct, even though her teammates disagree. Sylvia cannot be persuaded by her teammates to reconsider how accurate her response is. She is demonstrating the

overconfidence barrier.

Automatic thinking tends to be all of the following except

voluntary.

The way that automatic and controlled processing tend to work together can be best compared to a

modern jet system that can fly on automatic pilot but also has a manual override.

When people tend to focus on the properties of objects without consideration of the context, this is described as a(n) ___________ thinking style.

analytic

Austin cannot stop thinking about a scary accident in which he was involved. These intrusive thoughts are both unpleasant and distracting. When is Austin least likely to think about the accident? When his

monitoring and operating processes work in tandem.

When Becky meets her new roommate, she sees that she has her hair dyed blue and has decorated her side of the room with lots of handmade ceramic pots and paintings. She then assumes that her roommate has multiple piercings and listens to punk rock. She has used ________ heuristic in making this assumption.

the representativeness

The authors of your textbook point out that it is reasonable to use schemas to resolve ambiguity, but that this can become problematic when the schema is

inaccurate.

The authors of your text report that there are several gender differences in terms of academic performance, and that there is some evidence that this is due in part to the fact that girls and boys are unwittingly treated differently by teachers and parents. What phenomenon best explains how this treatment could influence academic performance? Self-fulfilling prophecies are

an automatic process.

You stayed up all night cramming for this examination and didn’t do as well as you had hoped. "If only I had started studying sooner and gotten a good night’s rest, I’d have done much better," you think to yourself. You have just engaged in

counterfactual thinking

When Frederic Bartlett (1932) interviewed both a Scotsman and a Bantu herdsman about the particulars of a cattle transaction, the Scot ________, whereas the Bantu herdsman ________.

consulted his notes; recalled details from memory

All of the following describe controlled thinking except

effortless.

Your roommate is interested in dating Chris, whom you know from a history class. Your roommate asks if you think Chris is generally a considerate person. You remember how Chris lent you notes when you missed class last week, and tell your roommate you think Chris is very considerate. In making your judgment, you have relied upon the ________ heuristic.

availability

In the study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text, what made people behave more altruistically, actually leaving more money for a stranger? They were

primed with words related to God.

The textbook indicates that self-fulfilling prophecies are most likely to occur when

the perceiver is distracted and not able to fully attend to the interaction.

The study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text showed that under some conditions, participants would be more likely to leave more money for a stranger. What is the larger contribution to understanding social cognition that this study makes?

Goals can be activated and influence peoples’ behavior without their knowledge.

Jennifer was walking along the street when she saw a man run out of a convenience store clutching on to a bag. The owner of the store runs out and shouts for the man to stop and come back. Jennifer immediately assumes that there has been a robbery, not that the man was in a hurry and forgot his change. How did she fill in this gap in her knowledge of the situation?

She was relying on schema

An important function of controlled thinking is to

provide a check on automatic processing.

Recall that a group of researchers interviewed people who had suffered the loss of a spouse or child. They found that the more ________, the more distress the survivors reported.

easily they could imagine how the death could have been prevented

Self-fulfilling prophecies most often are a result of

inadvertent and unconscious influences of individuals’ schemas.

Iain is from Australia, where people drive on the left-hand side of the road. When he moved to the United States, his accident rate was higher than any of his friends’. Why might this be?

Driving schemas differ between the United States and Australia.

Elmer was trying desperately to forget about his embarrassing experience at the bar over the weekend. According to the authors of your text, Elmer is engaging in

thought suppression.

Korsakov’s syndrome is a neurological disorder that makes sufferers unable to form new memories. The world is disorienting and incoherent to patients with this disorder, so they often confabulate and invent fictions to make the world less scary and confusing. A social psychologist might say that these patients

invent schemas where none exist

Schemas that people apply to others who are members of a social group (e.g., an ethnic group or a fraternity)
are also called

stereotypes.

In general, when people first encounter a novel situation, they tend to

size up the situation quickly and effortlessly and, for the most part, correctly.

Which of the following is the best example of the practice of racial profiling?

Security guards remove a Hispanic teen from a store because he looks "suspicious."

Recall that Harold Kelley (1950) told some college students that their guest lecturer was a warm person, and others that he was a cold person. The visitor then lectured for twenty minutes, and behaved in a very cocky, arrogant way during the lecture. All students viewed the lecturer as arrogant, but differed in their assessments of how humorous he was. These results suggest that schemas are

more likely to be used to interpret ambiguous behaviors.

Based on information from your text about cultural differences in thinking, complete the analogy:
Western: _________:: Eastern: __________.

analytic; holistic

In the study by Shariff and Norenzayan (2007) presented in your text, when participants were primed with __________, they left more money for another person.

words related to God or fairness to others

Culture can influence our schemas by influencing

what we notice and remember.

Chronic accessibility is to long-term exposure to a stimulus as temporary accessibility is to

priming.

Research by Kahneman and Tversky (1973) presented by the authors of your text found that people do not use base rate information sufficiently, and pay more attention to

how well the information they have about a person represents a certain category.

Which of the following is one way to overcome social cognitive mistakes, as described by your textbook?

Consider an opposite point of view.

Jacob’s friend, Tom asks him, "Do you think I’m short-tempered?" Jacob had never really thought about how short-tempered or calm Tom was until he had asked. Nonetheless, Jacob was able to provide him a quick answer. What social cognitive process was most likely involved in this judgment?

availability heuristic

Schemas are typically useful for all of the following functions except

helping us use more controlled processes.

Which of the following statements is true?

Both automatic and controlled processing can lead to consequential errors.

The mental shortcuts that people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently are called

judgmental heuristics

Ava is at a party, deep in conversation with her friends. Suddenly, she hears her name mentioned in another
conversation and her attention turns to monitor that conversation. Clearly, Ava had been unconsciously
monitoring the other conversations. Such experiences demonstrate the

cocktail party effect.

If both Chinese and Americans are comparing two pieces of art, the American is most likely to notice

differences in the foreground.

Recall that Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) informed grade-school teachers that some of their students (called "bloomers") would show great academic improvement in the upcoming year. Also recall that students labeled "bloomers" actually showed greater increases on IQ tests compared to students who were not labeled "bloomers." These differences occurred because teachers

challenged "bloomers" more and gave them more and better feedback.

The authors of your text suggest that with respect to traditional gender differences in scholastic performance, one causal factor may be

self-fulfilling prophecies of school teachers

Consider information from the authors of your text about the availability heuristic. If you wanted to improve customer satisfaction survey ratings for your company, which of the following would you ask customers in terms of their suggestions for improvement?

Ask them to list ten criticisms/suggestions.

A study conducted by Lord, Lepper, and Preston (1984) investigated ways to reduce errors in judgment. When they asked participants to consider and think about the opposite point of view to their own, this successfully reduced their errors. Why?

They realized there were other ways to construe the world.

Research on the health consequences of thought suppression suggests that spending effort suppressing thoughts is ________ to our physical health and ________ to our psychological health.

detrimental; detrimental