In addition to understanding these terms, you should be able to address the questions listed in the handout on reading research articles for each of the three articles covered in the unit. Glossary of social cognition terms Schemas are cognitive structures that organize memory and influence our perception and judgment. The more accessible a category is, the stronger its influence on social perception and judgment. Biased assimilation occurs when an accessible category leads one to perceive ambiguous social information in a fashion that is congruent with a category. Priming occurs when a prior event increases category accessibility and thus has an effect on a subsequent event.
Categories become chronic following extensive use in the past.
Thought suppression is a situation where one attempts to avoid thinking undesired thoughts. Dual-process models are classes of cognitive processes that rely on two different processes. The second process, controlled processes, is under the control of the individual and responds to deliberate thought. Introspection is an attempt to understand the reasons for why people feel and think the way they do. For example, introspection would suggest that I not only know that I like Diet Coke, but that I can report on the reasons why I like Diet Coke.