Social Cognition

PL 3238 AY14-15/ Sem 1

Lecture: Fridays 12pm 2pm LT14

Instructor: Dr. See Ya Hui Michelle

Email: see367@yahoo.com (best way to reach me!)

Phone: 6516-8187 (please leave message if no one picks up)

Office Hours: By appointment

Office: AS4 #02-31


Teaching Assistant: Wong Shi Hui Sarah

Email: psywshs@nus.edu.sg

Office Hours: By appointment

Office: AS4 #02-07D


Course Goals

Content.

Students taking PL 3238 should acquire knowledge of scientific theory and resear
ch in the
major topic areas of social cognition. Some examples of major topic areas includ
e
- person memory
- impression formation
- stereotypes
- automatic and controlled processing
- cross-cultural cognition.

Learning skills.

Students should strengthen their abilities to read and discuss empirical researc
h and
review articles. This involves learning how to
- process a large amount of information
- integrate existing knowledge
- to use existing knowledge to evaluate new information
- to apply the principles they have learned for understanding mental processes i
n
everyday situations

Course Format
The lecture will begin with a 5 minute writing exercise (for you to recap the pr
evious weeks
materials). I will then cover contents on the current weeks topic.

The tutorials will involve more in-depth discussion of some of the assigned read
ings as
well as group presentations.



Schedule of Course Topics (**subject to change**)

DATE
TOPIC
READINGS



Week 1



Aug 15

. Introduction to
Social Cognition
. Categories
. Schemas

Fiske & Taylor (2013). Social Cognition: From brains to
culture. Chapter 1 Introduction. (pp.1-28). Los Angeles:
Sage.

Jordan, C., & Zanna, M.P. (1999). How to read a
journal article in social psychology. In R.F. Baumeister
(Ed.), The self in social psychology (pp. 461-470).
Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2006). See what you want
to see: Motivational influences on visual perception.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 612-
625.

Week 2



Aug 22

. Heuristics I
Schwarz, N. et al. (1991). Ease of retrieval as
information: Another look at the availability heuristic.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 195-
202.

Epley, N., & Gilovich, T. (2001). Putting adjustment
back in the anchoring and adjustment heuristic:
Differential processing of self-generated and
experimenter-provided anchors. Psychological Science,
12, 391-396.


Week 3



Aug 29

. Heuristics II

Tormala, Z.L., Petty, R.E., & Briol, P. (2002). Ease of
retrieval effects in persuasion: A self-validation
analysis, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
28, 1700-1712.

Blankenship, K.L., Wegener, D.T., Petty, R.E.
Detweiler-Bedell, Macy, C.L. (2008). Elaboration and
consequences of anchored estimates: An attitudinal
perspective on numerical anchoring. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1465-1476.

Week 4


Sep 4

. Hypothesis
testing
. Covariation
detection
. Counterfactual
thinking

Chapter 4 in this e-book:
Kunda, Z. (1999). Social Cognition: Making sense of
People. MIT Press: London, England.

Kray, L., George, L., Liljenquist, K., Galinsky, A.,
Tetlock, P., & Roese, N. (2010). From what might have
been to what must have been: Counterfactual thinking
creates meaning. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 98, 106-118.

Week 5


Sep 11

. Memory I
Loftus, E. F. (2005). Planting misinformation in the
human mind: A 30-year investigation in the malleability
of memory. Learning & Memory, 12, 361-366.

Lindsay, D., Hagen, L., Read, J., Wade, K., & Garry, M.
(2004). True Photographs and False Memories.
Psychological Science, 15(3), 149-154.
Week 6


Sep 18




. Memory II

Chapter 5 in this e-book:
Kunda, Z. (1999). Social Cognition: Making sense of
People. MIT Press: London, England.



Week 7


Oct 3

. MIDTERM EXAM


Everything covered from Week 1 to Week 6 in lecture
and tutorial.

Note: There is no make-up exam. Please do not
enroll in this course if you are unable to attend the
mid-term and/or the final exam.



Week 8


Oct 10

. Stereotypes


Maris, S. & Hoorens, V. (2012). The ISI phenomenon:
When contradicting one stereotype changes another.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 624-
633.

Wegener, D.T., Clark, J.K., & Petty, R.E. (2006). Not all
stereotyping is created equal: Differential
consequences of thoughtful versus nonthoughtful
stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin, 90, 42-59.


Week 9


Oct 17

. Automatic
Processing I

Hugenberg, K. & Bodenhausen, G.V. (2003). Implicit
prejudice and the perception of facial threat.
Psychological Science, 14, 640-643.

Bargh, J.A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996).
Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait
construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 230-244.

Cesario, J., Plaks, J. E., & Higgins, E. T. (2006).
Automatic social behavior as motivated preparation to
interact. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
90, 893 - 910.

Week 10


Oct 24
. Automatic
Processing II

Bodenhausen, G. (1990). Stereotypes as judgmental
heuristics: Evidence of circadian variations in
discrimination. Psychological Science, 1, 319-322.

Gilbert, G.T., Krull, D.S., & Pelham, B.W. (1998). Of
thoughts unspoken: Social inference and the self-
regulation of behavior. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 55, 685-694.




Week 11


Oct 31

. Motivation and
Affect
Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S.,
Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirkland, S., et al. (1990).
Evidence for terror management theory II: The effects
of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten
or bolster the cultural worldview. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 58(2), 308-318.

Sawicki, V., Wegener, D. T., Clark, J. K., Fabrigar, L.
R., Smith, S. M., & Bengal, S. T. (2011). Seeking
confirmation in times of doubt: Selective exposure and
the motivational strength of weak attitudes. Social
Psychological and Personality Science, 2, 540-546.

Echebarria-Echabe Agustin (2013). Mortality salience
and uncertainty effects: Similar effects but different
processes? European Journal of Social Psychology,
43, 185-191.
Week 12


Nov 7

. Cognitive
Consistency


Gawronski, B., Walther, E., & Blank, H. (2005).
Cognitive consistency and the formation of
interpersonal attitudes: Cognitive balance affects the
encoding of social information. Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology, 41, 618-626.

Maio, G.R., Esses, V.M., & Bell, D.W. (1994). The
formation of attitudes toward new immigrant groups.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24, 1762-1776.

Week 13


Nov 14

. Cross-cultural
Cognition

Choi, I., Koo, M., & Choi, J. A. (2007). Individual
differences in analytic versus holistic thinking.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 691
-705.

Hoshino-Browne, E., Zanna, A. S., Spencer, S. J.,
Zanna, M. P., Kitayama, S., & Lackenbauer, S. (2005).
On the cultural guises of cognitive dissonance: The
case of Easterners and Westerners. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 294 310.



Schedule at a Glance

Week/Day Topic


1 Aug 15 Introduction to Social Cognition
Categories and Schemas

2 Aug 22 Heuristics I

3 Aug 29 Heuristics II

4 Sep 5 Hypothesis Testing
Covariation
Counterfactuals

5 Sep 12 Memory I

6 Sep 19 Memory II

7 Oct 3 Midterm Exam

8 Oct 10 Stereotypes

9 Oct 16 Automatic Processing I

10 Oct 24 Automatic Processing II

11 Oct 31 Motivation and Affect

12 Nov 7 Cognitive Consistency

13 Nov 14 Cross-Cultural Cognition

Nov 26 (PM) Final Exam


NOTE:
Oct 6 (Week 8, Mon) and Oct 22 (Week 10, Wed) are Hari Raya and Deepavali public

holidays, respectively. There will be no tutorials on these dates for discussion
groups E1
and E3. Hence, both groups will have a make-up tutorial (Tutorial 5) during Week
13 at
their regular timeslot (i.e., Nov 10 for E1 and Nov 12 for E4). Please take this
into
consideration when signing up for tutorials.

All other tutorials will proceed as scheduled.

Tutorial Schedule

Discussion Group Week Day Time

D1 Odd Mon 12pm - 2pm
D2* Odd Tue 12pm - 2pm
D3 Odd Wed 12pm - 2pm
D4* Odd Wed 8am - 10am
E1 Even Mon 12pm - 2pm
E2* Even Tue 12pm - 2pm
E3 Even Wed 12pm - 2pm


*Discussion groups D2, D4, and E2 will be dropped in the event that the module i
s under-
subscribed. Please do not enroll in this course if these are the only tutorial s
lots that you
can attend.




Week Topic

3/4 Tutorial 1: Welcome/How to Read a Journal Article

A. Jordan, C., & Zanna, M.P. (1999). How to read a journal article in social psy
chology.
In R.F. Baumeister (Ed.), The self in social psychology (pp. 461-470). Philadelp
hia:
Psychology Press.

B. Blankenship, K.L., Wegener, D.T., Petty, R.E. Detweiler-Bedell, Macy, C.L. (2
008).
Elaboration and consequences of anchored estimates: An attitudinal perspective o
n
numerical anchoring. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1465-1476.


5/6 Tutorial 2: Reconstructing the Past, Experiencing the Future

A. Kray, L. J., George, L. G., Liljenquist, K. A., Galinsky, A. D., Tetlock, P.
E., & Roese,
N. J. (2010). From what might have been to what must have been: Counterfactual
thinking creates meaning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 106-
118.

B. Gilbert, D. T., & Ebert, J. E. J. (2002). Decisions and revisions: The affect
ive
forecasting of changeable outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
,
82, 503-514.




7/8 Tutorial 3: Group presentations** on Stereotypes

A. Sherman, J.W., Conrey, R.R., & Groom, C.J. (2004). Encoding flexibility revis
ited:
Evidence for enhanced encoding of stereotype-inconsistent information under
cognitive load. Social Cognition, 22, 214-232.

B. Lybarger, J.E., & Monteith, M.J. (2011). The effect of Obama saliency on indi
vidual-
level racial bias: silver bullet or smokescreen? Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 47, 642-652.

C. Ranganath, K.A., & Nosek, B.A. (2008). Implicit attitude generalization occur
s
immediately; explicit attitude generalization takes time. Psychological Science,
19,
249-254.


9/10 Tutorial 4: Group presentations** on Automatic Processing

A. Briol, P., Gasc, M., Petty, R.E., & Horcajo, J. (2013).Treating thoughts as mat
erial
objects can increase or decrease their impact on evaluation. Psychological Scien
ce,
24, 41-47.

B. Macrae, C.N., & Johnston, L. (1998). Help, I need somebody: Automatic action
and
inaction. Social Cognition, 16, 400-417.



11/12 Tutorial 5: Yin and Yang; Darkness and Light

A. Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirk
land,
S., et al. (1990). Evidence for terror management theory II: The effects of mort
ality
salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(2), 308-318.

B. Choi, I., Koo, M., & Choi, J. A. (2007). Individual differences in analytic v
ersus
holistic thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 691-705.




** Group presentations
You will be presenting one experiment from the assigned article of the week. The
time for each
presentation should be between 15-20 minutes. The contents of the presentation s
hould include
but not be limited to:

Introduction
. What is the research question/ why was this research conducted?
. What is the hypothesis?

Method
. What is the overall design?
. How is the study conducted?

Conclusion
. What are the results?
. What can we conclude from the results?
. What is one real-life application of the finding?


Some tips for a good presentation:
. Explain and clarify rather than re-state or paraphrase
. Use visual aids (e.g., diagrams, graphs, etc.) where appropriate, and be able
to break down
and explain the visual aids
. Think of ways to let your fellow classmates experience what participants in th
e study went
through (e.g. via exercises, demonstrations, etc.)

Important:
. It is a good idea to rehearse your presentation at least once. Time yourself t
o see if you
need to make revisions. Any portion of the presentation that occurs after 20 min
utes will not
be graded.
. You will receive 0% for your group presentation if you are absent.


Assessments

Class participation: 10%
Group presentation: 20%
Midterm exam (Oct 3): 30% (open book; short-answer and essay questions)
Final exam (Nov 26, PM): 40% (open book; short-answer and essay questions)

The exams will test your knowledge from everything covered in a.) lectures, b.)
all assigned
readings, and c.) tutorials.


Class Participation and Attendance

Attendance is not mandatory, but you will learn more from the class if you parti
cipate actively. If
you miss a lecture or tutorial for any reason, you are responsible for all mater
ial covered and any
announcements made in your absence. Please note that I will have to report to th
e Deans Office if
you miss more than two tutorial sessions.

You can earn up to 200 points for class participation and attendance. Below is t
he breakdown:

Attendance for every tutorial: 80 points
Four standard comments or two excellent comments*: 120 points

*Points for comments can be earned during audience participation in group presen
tations and
other activities during tutorials.