Exam 5: Social Cognition

People who have severe brain damage sometimes approach objects in the world as if they are seeing them for the first time. That is, instead of seeing a "chair," for example, these people see "a wooden object with four legs." Similarly, instead of seeing two dogs, such people might see "a small tan animal with fur and a large brown object with its tongue hanging out." One might conclude that people with this kind of brain damage ____.

According to research on the actor-observer effect, people have a tendency to make relatively more ____ for their own behaviors but relatively more ____ for others' behaviors.

Why did the clown park his car in a red zone, where he might get a ticket? If you assume it is because his car happened to break down right then and there, in the red zone, then you have made a(n) ____.

The so-called "gambler's fallacy" refers to the ____.

When you go to a restaurant, you know that there is a certain sequence of things that you need to do: (a) wait to be seated, (b) order, (c) eat, and then (d) pay. In other words, you have a ____ for what needs to be done at restaurants.

The fundamental attribution error is sometimes also known as the ____.

People who receive extremely low scores on IQ tests almost always perform better the second time around. This pattern can be attributed to statistical regression.

When engaged in debate over especially contentious issues such as racism, religious bias, or marriage equality, people who have polar opposite views often believe that their own views of those the majority. This illustrates the ____ effect.

Research suggests that the basic distinction people make in attributions is between ____.

Jorge just received an A+ on a physics exam. If you make an external attribution for this event, what might you thinking?

In a famous early study in social psychology, fans of two rival football teams were asked to watch footage of an actual game that was very close. Researchers found that fans of the two teams literally "saw" different games; things that were deemed "out" by fans of one team, for example, were deemed "in" by fans of the other. This was early evidence of the phenomenon known as ____.

Even though stomach cancer kills more people than plane crashes do, most people tend to assume that plane crashes cause more deaths. This misconception seems to arise from ____, since plane crash fatalities tend to be widely publicized and are therefore relatively easy for people to recall.

Define scripts and schemas, explain how they enable us to better process information, and give an example of each.

Current theory and research suggests that the power and size of the human cerebral cortex may have evolved largely in order to ____.

One explanation for the false consensus effect is that people use their own attitudes and behaviors as "anchors" for predicting others' attitudes and behaviors.

The belief that one should not change an answer on a test, even if additional consideration has led one to believe another answer might be the correct one, is called the ____.

The state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic is known as ________________.

Raquel buys stock in two different companies. She makes $2000 from one of these investments, but loses $3000 on the other one. If you ask Raquel about her stocks, she makes self-serving attributions, saying, "I was very clever to invest in that first company, but I just had bad luck losing so much money with the other one." In other words, ____.

The actor-observer bias holds that actors tend to make _________________ attributions.

The Stroop test is a psychological test that highlights the ____.