Download The Cognitive Perspective

Chapter Twelve
The Cognitive Perspective
Schemas and Their Development
• Schema—a mental organization of information
–
–
–
–
Perceptual images
Abstract knowledge
Feeling qualities
Time sequence information
• Includes information about:
– Exemplars (specific examples)
– General characteristics
• Theories of Formations
– Generated around construct of prototype (best actual
or idealized member)
– Represent a composite of characteristics that are
relevant, but not necessary = fuzzy set
Effects of Schemas
•
•
•
•
Facilitate coding of new information
Fill-in information lacking from events
Influence what information is remembered
Can be self-perpetuating
– Schemas guide what is remembered
– What you remember confirms schema
– Schema continues to guide what is
remembered
Organization of Memory
Schemas are organizations of memories
• Semantic Memory—organized by meaning
• Episodic Memory—organized by
sequence of events (space and time)
• Script—schemas for episodic events
– Results from multiple episodes of a given type
Socially Relevant Schemas
• Social Cognition—cognitive processes focusing
on socially meaningful stimuli
• People form cognitive categories for:
–
–
–
–
–
Types of people
Gender roles
Environments
Social situations
Social relations
• Social cognitions differ in content and complexity
from person to person, depending on experience
Self-Schemas
• Schematic representation of the self
• Larger and more complex than other
schemas
• Has more emotional elements
• Effects of self-schema:
– Makes it easier to remember things that fit it
– Provides default information
– Identifies where to look for new information
– Can bias recall of past events
– May be used as a default for strangers
Entity and Incremental Schemas
• Entity views—abilities seen as unchanging
– Goal of task performance is to prove ability
– Failure results in distress and desire to quit
– Attend to and remember information concerning
consistency
• Incremental views—abilities seen as increasing
with experience
– Goal of task performance is to extend ability
– Failure seen as opportunity to increase ability
– Attend to and remember information indicating
change
Attribution
• Inferring the cause of an event
• Provides information important to understanding
– Indicates kind of event
– Hints at likelihood of future occurrence
• Schemas assist in making attributions beyond
information that is available
• Self success attributed to stable internal causes
(ability)
• Self failure attributed to unstable causes, bad luck,
or too little effort
Activation and Memories
• Memory is organized in a network of
interconnected nodes (areas of storage)
• Information from activated memory nodes is
represented in consciousness
• As a node is activated, partial activation spreads
to related (linked) nodes
• Partial activation makes it easier for information to
move into consciousness
– Priming—activation of a node of information in a task
prior to a task of interest (experimental uses)
• Schematic information varies in the ease of
activation depending on frequency of use
Connectionism
• Representations exist in patterns of activation
across a neural network, rather than in nodes
• Patterns reflect simultaneous satisfaction of
multiple constraints
• Particular relevance to social perceptions and
decision making
– Requires selection of one possibility from many
– Output takes the form of only one representation at a
given time
• Organization of patterned network can be
destabilized by new inputs (e.g., ambiguous
figures, self-concept)
Dual Process Models
• Two kinds of thought involved in cognition
– Conscious processing—effortful reasoning and
programs of instruction
• Implements rules and carries out logical steps of inference
and action
• “Cool system,” slower, conscious, rational, evolutionarily
newer
• Explicit knowledge
– Intuitive processing—intuitive problem solving,
heuristic strategies, automated processes
• “Insights” often shake out of the system
• “Hot system,” quick, automatic, experiential, evolutionarily
older
• Implicit knowledge
Cognitive Person Variables
• Adequate theory of personality must take into
account 5 classes of variables that are influenced
by learning (Mischel)
– Competencies—social skills and problem-solving strategies
– Encoding strategies and personal constructs—schematic
influences on individualized perspectives of the world
– Expectancies—important for understanding actions
• Expectancies involving sequential continuity in experience
• Behavior-outcome expectancies—connections suggesting causal
influence
– Subjective values—reflected by the outcomes a person
wants
– Self-Regulatory Systems and Plans—setting goals, making
plans, and setting plans into action
Cognitive-Affective
Processing System
• People develop complex organizations of
information about themselves and the
world
– These organizations have a conditional
quality (hedges), which link behavior and
affect to situations
– Conditional qualities vary from person to
person
Assessment
• Focused on identifying cognitive tendencies and
contents of consciousness
• Procedures include:
– Think-aloud procedures—used during problem solving
– Thought/experience sampling—reports of thought and
actions at scheduled or random times
– Event recording/self-monitoring—reports of behavior,
emotions, and thoughts associated with specific event
types
• Important to contextualize assessment—allows
identification of if…then… contingencies for
behavior
Problems in Behavior
• Difficulties arise from:
– Deficits in information-processing abilities
(encoding, attention)
– Faulty schemas of the world
– Negative schemas about self (cognitive triad)
• Overgeneralization of bad outcomes
• Arbitrary inferences—jump to negative conclusions
without supporting evidence
• Catastrophize
Therapy
• Cognitive Therapy—abandon faulty
schemas and build new ones
– Cognitive restructuring—identify automatic
self-defeating thoughts and replace with new
self-talk
– Reality testing—challenge automated thought
patterns to be tested against evidence