DOCSLIB.ORG

Glossary ABC Model of Learning

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Glossary ABC Model of Learning BORIGLOS.doc - 1 Glossary ABC model of learning. A model that considers antecedents in the environment that elicit desired behavior, which is then strengthened when followed by appropriate consequences. Accelerated curriculum. Programs for the gifted and talented that offer advanced courses and/or grade skipping. Accommodation. Altering or adjusting cognitive structures affected by new information. Active listening. A technique whereby the listener summarizes essential aspects of what the speaker has tried to say or the feeling the speaker tried to convey. Active responding. Learner behavior that emphasizes asserting, volunteering, or actively seeking out information. Adaptation. As identified by Piaget, a central drive of humans to adapt to the world as they experience it. Adaptive behavior. Skills that most people learn without formal instruction, such as personal care, feeding, and social skills. Advance organizer. A summary of the concepts, generalizations, and themes to be learned, presented at a general and inclusive level. Affectional bonds. Long-lasting bonds between a child and a parent. Age-equivalent scores. The obtained scores of those in a norming sample who are of various ages. Antecedents. Stimuli present in an environment that make a behavior more likely to occur. Anticipatory set. An organized framework usually presented to learners at the beginning of a lesson that helps them relate past with present learning and that places the lesson into a context that the learners can relate to and focus on. Applied behavior analysis. An approach to classroom management that applies behavioristic principles to modify behavior in socially important areas. Assimilation. Expanding or enriching cognitive structures with new information or perceptions. BORIGLOS.doc - 2 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A disorder that has its onset before age 7, lasts at least six months, and is characterized by an inability to sustain attention, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and deficits in rule-governed behavior. Attention deficit. Difficulty staying with or completing an activity over a period of time; becoming easily bored and uninterested in activities relative to others. Attribution theory. A perspective on motivation that assumes that people seek to understand why they succeed or fail. Authentic assessment. Testing that covers the content that was taught in the manner in which it was taught and that targets specific behaviors that have applicability to advanced courses, other programs of study, or careers. Authentic problems. Problems encountered in the real world for which the expected solution is uncertain and the task then yields multiple solutions, each with advantages and disadvantages. Automaticity. Learning a procedure so thoroughly that it can be carried out quickly with little thinking or effort. Behavioral schemata. Patterns of action or sequences of behavior that the child uses to explore and respond to objects in her environment. Behavioral setting. The immediate environment in which a behavior occurs. Behaviorism. A school of thought in psychology whose cardinal tenet is that any conclusion made about human development must be based on scientific observations of overt behavior and the observable events that strengthen and elicit it. Case study. An intensive study of persons or situations singly or in small numbers. Categorization. The process by which the mind simplifies information that enters short-term memory. Causal schemata. Beliefs about the sequential nature of observed data in which effects are attributed to causes. Centering. The questioning by a member of a group about how that individual will personally benefit from the group; a preoccupation with fairness. BORIGLOS.doc - 3 Classical conditioning. The process by which an unconditioned, neutral stimulus and an unconditioned response are paired repeatedly to become a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response. Classroom management tradition. An approach emphasizing the organization and management of instructional activities in order to prevent misbehavior. Clinical method. Research that studies a small group of subjects in everyday, natural settings. Coaching. An aspect of instruction by which the teacher helps learners master particular skills through the skillful use of practice and prompts. Coercive power. Leadership based on punishment or coercion. Cognitive apprenticeship. The notion that learners can best become more skilled at gathering and using knowledge for themselves by observing experts. Cognitive strategies. General methods of thinking that improve learning across a variety of subject areas. Cognitive style. The means by which individuals process and think about what they learn. Commanding stimuli appeal. The use of assertive commands or statements by an instructor to focus learner attention. Communication disability. An impairment that involves speech, language, vision, or hearing. Comprehension monitoring. Cognitive strategies that help learners derive meaning from what they read. Conceptual conflict. The result when our existing beliefs or ways of explaining things don’t produce the outcomes we predicted. Concerns theory. A view that conceptualizes the teacher’s growth and development as a process of passing through concerns for self (teacher) to task (teaching) to impact (pupil). Concrete operational stage. The third of Piaget’s cognitive developmental stages, characterized by an understanding of the laws of conservation and a readiness to engage in other mental operations using concrete stimuli. BORIGLOS.doc - 4 Conditioned response. In classical conditioning, a response that is elicited by some previously neutral stimulus; occurs by pairing the neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus. Conditioned stimulus. A stimulus that through the conditioning process has acquired the power to generate a conditioned response. Congruent communication. Communication that uses statements that are directed at a learner’s actions, that reflect an accurate or honest evaluation of learner performance, that help learners believe in themselves and their own abilities, and that attribute learner achievement to internal rather than external factors. Consequences. Stimuli or events that follow behavior; consequences can be negative or positive. Constructivism. An approach to learning in which learners are provided the opportunity to construct their own sense of what is being learned by building internal connections or relationships among the ideas and facts being taught. Content validity. A measure of the degree to which a test covers all the content that was taught in the manner in which it was taught. Continuous reinforcement schedule. Reinforcement of every occurrence of a behavior. Control group. The baseline group against whom changes in the experimental group are compared. The experimental group’s stimulus is withheld from the control group. Cooperative learning. A teaching method that uses heterogeneous groups of learners who are responsible for one another’s learning with respect to a common goal. Cooperative learning. The assignment of students of varying abilities and ethnicities and of both genders to small groups with a common goal in which each member has a role. Correlational study. Research that tries to determine whether a relationship exists between two variables. Correlation coefficient. A numerical index on a −1.0 to +1.0 scale that indicates the degree to which two sets of scores are related. Criterion-referenced grading. The linking of grades to a standard of mastery or achievement. BORIGLOS.doc - 5 Cultural compatibility. The goal of designing instruction to incorporate relevant features of the learners’ culture. Culturally responsive teaching. Instructional methods designed to be compatible with the learning and cognitive styles of a particular ethnic or cultural group. Decay theory. A theory that holds that information dissolves or dissipates from our working memory unless it is rehearsed. Declarative knowledge. Verbal information: the facts, concepts, principles, and theories we learn from lectures, studying textbooks, or watching television. Deficiency/growth needs theory. A theory of motivation that posits that humans have an innate hierarchy of needs that drives all activity. Deficit model. A view of parent participation that assigns the blame for the lack of participation on parents attitudes, temperament, and conditions. Dependent variable. The variable that is the presumed effect of an independent variable. Descriptive research. A means of measuring variables through questionnaires, interviews, or systematic observation, or a combination of these practices. Developmental stage. A period of development during which a person’s physical, mental, or psychological functioning is different from the periods preceding and following it. Developmental theories. Theoretical approaches for explaining the process of human development. The four major theories are biological, learning, cognitive-developmental, and psychoanalytic. Direct explanation teaching. A variety of teaching methods that make explicit to learners at the outset of a lesson the academic competencies, strategies, generalizations, or procedures to be taught. Direct instruction. Instructional methods that present information explicitly through lecturing, questioning, and demonstration. Direct instruction is particularly suited to the acquisition of facts, rules, and action sequences. BORIGLOS.doc - 6 Discovery learning. The organization of knowledge
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Concepts As Correlates of Lexical Labels. a Cognitivist Perspective
    This is a submitted manuscript version. The publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use or reprint the material in any form. Final published version, copyright Peter Lang: https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-05287-9 Sławomir Wacewicz Concepts as Correlates of Lexical Labels. A Cognitivist Perspective. This is a submitted manuscript version. The publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use or reprint the material in any form. Final published version, copyright Peter Lang: https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-05287-9 CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………... 6 PART I INTERNALISTIC PERSPECTIVE ON LANGUAGE IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE Preliminary remarks………………………………………………………… 17 1. History and profile of Cognitive Science……………………………….. 18 1.1. Introduction…………………………………………………………. 18 1.2. Cognitive Science: definitions and basic assumptions ……………. 19 1.3. Basic tenets of Cognitive 22 Science…………………………………… 1.3.1. Cognition……………………………………………………... 23 1.3.2. Representationism and presentationism…………………….... 25 1.3.3. Naturalism and physical character of mind…………………... 28 1.3.4. Levels of description…………………………………………. 30 1.3.5. Internalism (Individualism) ………………………………….. 31 1.4. History……………………………………………………………... 34 1.4.1. Prehistory…………………………………………………….. 35 1.4.2. Germination…………………………………………………... 36 1.4.3. Beginnings……………………………………………………. 37 1.4.4. Early and classical Cognitive Science………………………… 40 1.4.5. Contemporary Cognitive Science……………………………... 42 1.4.6. Methodological notes on interdisciplinarity………………….. 52 1.5. Summary…………………………………………………………. 59 2. Intrasystemic and extrasystemic principles of concept individuation 60 2.1. Existential status of concepts ……………………………………… 60 2 This is a submitted manuscript version. The publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use or reprint the material in any form. Final published version, copyright Peter Lang: https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-05287-9 2.1.1.
    [Show full text]
  • Cognitive and Neuroscience Research on Learning And
    The 11th International Conference on Education Research New Educational Paradigm for Learning and Instruction September 29 – October 1, 2010 Cognitive and Neuroscience Research on Learning and Instruction: Recent insights about the impact of non-conscious knowledge on problem solving, higher order thinking skills 12 and interactive cyber-learning environments. Richard E. Clark University of Southern California, USA Abstract There are as least three powerful insights from recent studies of the brain that support cognitive science research findings: First, our brains learn and process two very different types of knowledge; non conscious, automated knowledge and conscious, controllable, declarative knowledge. Evidence also suggests that we believe we control our own learning by conscious choice when in fact nearly all mental operations are highly automated, including learning and problem solving; Second, human beings have a very limited capacity to think during learning and problem solving and when that capacity is exceeded, thinking and learning stop without us being aware. Thus instruction and self managed learning must strive to avoid cognitive overload; and Third, nearly all of our instructional design and cyber learning theories and models fail to account for the influence of non-conscious cognitive processes and therefore are inadequate to deal with complex learning and performance. Evidence for these points will be described and their implications for instruction and the learning of problem solving and higher order thinking skills will be discussed. Models of learning and instruction that appear to help overcome some of these biological and cognitive barriers will be described. In addition, suggestions for new research questions on interactive learning environments that take account of the three insights will also be described.
    [Show full text]
  • The Science of Psychology 1
    PSY_C01.qxd 1/2/05 3:17 pm Page 2 The Science of Psychology 1 CHAPTER OUTLINE LEARNING OBJECTIVES INTRODUCTION PINNING DOWN PSYCHOLOGY PSYCHOLOGY AND COMMON SENSE: THE GRANDMOTHER CHALLENGE Putting common sense to the test Explaining human behaviour THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Philosophical influences Physiological influences PSYCHOLOGY TODAY Structuralism: mental chemistry Functionalism: mental accomplishment Behaviourism: a totally objective psychology Gestalt psychology: making connections Out of school: the independents The cognitive revolution FINAL THOUGHTS SUMMARY REVISION QUESTIONS FURTHER READING PSY_C01.qxd 1/2/05 3:17 pm Page 3 Learning Objectives By the end of this chapter you should appreciate that: n psychology is much more than ‘common sense’; n psychological knowledge can be usefully applied in many different professions and walks of life; n psychology emerged as a distinct discipline around 150 years ago, from its roots in physiology, physics and philosophy; n there are fundamental differences between different schools of thought in psychology; n psychology is the science of mental life and behaviour, and different schools of thought within psychology place differing degrees of emphasis on understanding these different elements of psychology; n most academic departments in the English-speaking world focus on the teaching of experimental psychology, in which scientific evidence about the structure and function of the mind and behaviour accumulates through the execution of empirical investigations; n in the history of psychology many different metaphors have been used for thinking about the workings of the human mind, and since the Second World War the most influential of these metaphors has been another complex information-processing device – the computer.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Cognitive Science in the 20Th Century
    The Rise of Cognitive Science in the 20th Century Carrie Figdor (forthcoming in Kind, A., ed., Philosophy of Mind in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Routledge) Penultimate Draft Abstract. This chapter describes the conceptual foundations of cognitive science during its establishment as a science in the 20th century. It is organized around the core ideas of individual agency as its basic explanans and information-processing as its basic explanandum. The latter consists of a package of ideas that provide a mathematico- engineering framework for the philosophical theory of materialism. Keywords: cognitive science; psychology; linguistics; computer science; neuroscience; behaviorism; artificial intelligence; computationalism; connectionism Part I. Introduction. Cognitive science is the study of individual agency: its nature, scope, mechanisms, and patterns. It studies what agents are and how they function. This definition is modified from one provided by Bechtel, Abrahamson, and Graham (1998), where cognitive science is defined as “the multidisciplinary scientific study of cognition and its role in intelligent agency.” Several points motivate the modification. First (and least consequential), the multidisciplinarity of cognitive science is an accident of academic history, not a fact about its subject matter (a point also pressed in Gardner 1985). Second, the label “intelligent” is often used as a term of normative assessment, when cognitive science is concerned with behavior by entities (including possibly groups, as individual or collective agents) that are not considered intelligent, as well as unintelligent behavior of intelligent agents, for any intuitive definition of “intelligent”.1 Third and most importantly, the term “cognition” is omitted from the definiens to help emphasize a position of neutrality on a number of contemporary debates.
    [Show full text]
  • The Association of Strategy Use and Concrete-Operational Thinking in Primary School
    ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 23 May 2018 doi: 10.3389/feduc.2018.00038 The Association of Strategy Use and Concrete-Operational Thinking in Primary School Moritz Börnert-Ringleb* and Jürgen Wilbert Department of Inclusive Education, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Concrete-operational thinking depicts an important aspect of cognitive development. A promising approach in promoting these skills is the instruction of strategies. The construction of such instructional programs requires insights into the mental operations involved in problem-solving. In the present paper, we address the question to which extent variations of the effect of isolated and combined mental operations (strategies) on correct solution of concrete-operational concepts can be observed. Therefore, a cross-sectional design was applied. The use of mental operations was measured by thinking-aloud reports from 80 first- and second-graders (N = 80) while solving tasks depicting concrete-operational thinking. Concrete-operational thinking was assessed Edited by: using the subscales conservation of numbers, classification and sequences of the TEKO. Michael S. Dempsey, Boston University, United States The verbal reports were transcribed and coded with regard to the mental operations Reviewed by: applied per task. Data analyses focused on tasks level, resulting in the analyses of Sharinaz Hassan, N = 240 tasks per subscale. Differences regarding the contribution of isolated and Curtin University, Australia Niels A. Taatgen, combined mental operations (strategies) to correct solution were observed. Thereby, University of Groningen, Netherlands the results indicate the necessity of selection and integration of appropriate mental *Correspondence: operations as strategies. The results offer insights in involved mental operations while Moritz Börnert-Ringleb solving concrete-operational tasks and depict a contribution to the construction of [email protected] instructional programs.
    [Show full text]
  • Coordination of Component Mental Operations in Sequences of Discrete Responses
    Coordination of Component Mental Operations in Sequences of Discrete Responses Shu-Chieh Wu ([email protected] ) Roger W. Remington ([email protected]) NASA Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 262-4 Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA Harold Pashler ([email protected]) Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093 USA Abstract distributed across different resources, interleaving upcoming operations in the slack time created by queued bottleneck In daily life we often perform sequences of actions, which processes, and allowing operations from different resources with practice are accomplished by overlapping mental to proceed concurrently. The success of this approach operations for successive actions. Is it possible to derive depends on the underlying assumption that component performance predictions for such sequences from a mental operations inferred from discrete task performance characterization of the mental operations for a single do not function differently in extended task environments. stimulus-response pair? We explore this by examining the joint timing of eye movements and manual responses in a This assumption has yet to be tested. Also, success has been typing-like task following Pashler (1994). Participants made achieved for tasks that are largely perceptual-motor, with separate choice responses to a series of five stimuli spread good fits obtaining after about 100 contiguous trials (e.g., over a wide viewing area. Replicating Pashler’s results, John et al., 2002). responses to the first stimulus (RT1) were elevated, with The goal of the present research is to investigate the inter-response intervals (IRI) for subsequent items rapid and coordination of component mental operations in extended flat across items.
    [Show full text]
  • Addressing Metacognitive Capacity for Self Reflection in the Psychotherapy for Schizophrenia
    58 The British Psychological Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice (2011), 84, 58–69 Society C 2010 The British Psychological Society www.wileyonlinelibrary.com Addressing metacognitive capacity for self reflection in the psychotherapy for schizophrenia: A conceptual model of the key tasks and processes ∗ , Paul H. Lysaker1,2 , Kelly D. Buck1 3, Antonino Carcione4, Michelle Procacci4, Giampaolo Salvatore4, Guiseppe Nicolo` 4 and Giancarlo Dimaggio4 1Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA 2Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA 3Purdue University School of Nursing, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA 4Terzo Centro di Psicoterapia Cognitiva, Associazione di Psicologia Cognitiva, Rome, Italy Purpose. Recognition that recovery from schizophrenia may involve a deepening of the experience of being in the world has led to the possibility that psychotherapy may play a key role in treatment by enhancing metacognition, or the capacity to think about thinking. While the potential of psychotherapy to enhance metacognition in non- psychotic disorders has been discussed in depth, little has been written about how psychotherapy may systematically address metacognition in schizophrenia. Accordingly, the current paper formulates a model of how psychotherapy might address one specific element of metacognition, namely self-reflectivity. Methods. Procedures are outlined for assessing clients’ capacity for self-reflectivity within narrative contexts during psychotherapy. Results. Targeted interventions are identified which are tailored to clients’ capacities in the moment and which assist clients to think about their own thinking at the level of which they are capable. This may lead clients over time to develop a greater ability to engage in acts of increasingly complex self-reflectivity.
    [Show full text]
  • Functional Imaging in Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuropsychology
    Functional Imaging in Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuropsychology Geoffrey Karl Aguirre From: T. E. Feinberg & M. J. Farah (Eds.), Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuropsychology . (in press). New York: McGraw Hill. Introduction What can we hope to learn of the physical operation of the central nervous system and the mental processes that result? The fields of behavioral neurology and cognitive neuropsychology survey this relationship, and have at their disposal powerful intellectual and methodological tools. While the terrain of possible models of brain and behavior interaction seems boundless, particular tests of these models may exist beyond the reach of particular methods. These methods fall into two broad categories, and have been around for several centuries. The first category includes manipulations of the neural substrate itself. Such an intervention might inactivate a brain area, perhaps through a lesion, with Paul Broca’s 1861 observation of the link between language and left frontal lobe damage providing a prototypical example. The effects of stimulation of brain areas can also be studied, as Harvey Cushing did with the human sensory cortex in the early 20th century. In contrast, observation techniques relate a measure of neural function to behavior. Hans Berger’s work in the 1920s on the human electroencephalographic response is a good starting point. Impressive refinements and additions to both of these categories have taken place over the last century. For example, beyond the static lesions of “nature’s accidents” that have been the mainstay of cognitive neuropsychology for many years, it is now possible to temporarily and reversibly inactivate areas of human cortex using transcranial magnetic stimulation (see chapter X for additional details).
    [Show full text]
  • Piaget's Four Stages
    Piaget's four stages According to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, intelligence is the basic mechanism of ensuring equilibrium in the relations between the person and the environment. This is achieved through the actions of the developing person on the world. At any moment in development, the environment is assimilated in the schemes of action that are already available and these schemes are transformed or accommodated to the peculiarities of the objects of the environment, if they are not completely appropriate. Thus, the development of intelligence is a continuous process of assimilations and accommodations that lead to increasing expansion of the field of application of schemes, increasing coordination between them, increasing interiorization, and increasing abstraction. The mechanism underlying this process of increasing abstraction, interiorization, and coordination is reflecting abstraction. That is, reflecting abstraction gradually leads to the rejection of the external action components of sensorimotor operations on objects and to the preservation of the mental, planning or anticipatory, components of operation. These are the mental operations that are gradually coordinated with each other, generating structures of mental operations. These structures of mental operations are applied on representations of objects rather than on the objects themselves. Language, mental images, and numerical notation are examples of representations standing for objects and thus they become the object of mental operations. Moreover, mental operations, with development, become reversible. For instance, the counting of a series of objects can go both forward and backward with the understanding that the number of objects counted is not affected by the direction of counting because the same number can be retrieved both ways.[2] Piaget described four main periods in the development towards completely reversible equlibrated thought structures.
    [Show full text]
  • Language and Cognition Catherine L Harris, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA
    Galley: Article - 00559 Level 1 Language and Cognition Catherine L Harris, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA CONTENTS Introduction Cognitive linguistics Concepts of cognition and language The Cognitive neuroscience movement Connectionism Conclusion Cognitive scientists have long debated whether lan- The second way ofconceptualizing human cog- 0559.003 guage and cognition are separate mental faculties, nition emphasizes the differences between lan- or whether language emerges from general cogni- guage and other abilities. A key idea is that many tive abilities. distinct domains ofcognition exist and must be learned separately, using different mental mechan- INTRODUCTION isms. This approach is referred to as the `modular- ity ofcognition' or `mental modules' approach. At 0559.001 What is the relationship between language and first glance it may seem contrary to the interdiscip- cognition? Do people who speak different lan- linary spirit ofcognitive science and to the possibil- guages think differently? Is a certain level of ity ofa unified theory ofcognition. However, the cognitive development required for language ac- unifying theory is the thesis of distinct mental quisition? These questions were ofkeen interest to modules, which are believed to have evolved to thinkers in the early twentieth century and remain accomplish specific tasks relevant to mammalian important in anthropology, linguistics and psych- evolution, such as visual exploration, or relevant ology. However, the cognitive revolution ofthe to human evolution, such as language use. Much of 1950s brought a new question about the relation- the appeal of this approach comes from findings in ship between language and cognition: is language neuropsychology showing that distinct areas ofthe the same type ofmental entity as other cognitive brain serve distinct functions such as vision, lan- abilities, or is it fundamentally different? guage processing, motor coordination, memory, 0559.002 A hallmark ofmodern cognitive science is the and face recognition.
    [Show full text]
  • Piagetian and Psychometric Conceptions of Intelligence
    Piagetian and Psychometric Conceptions of Intelligence DAVID ELKIND, University of Rochester Professor Elkind devotes much of his discussion to the concept of intelligence. He finds both similarities and differences when comparing the Piagetian descrip­ tion of intelligence with Jensen's (and the psychometrician's) definition of in­ telligence. Operating from quite different assumptions than those of J. McV. Hunt (Piaget's Structuralism, rather than neurology) Elkind also finds reason to believe that intelligence is developed in experience. For Piaget and Elkind, in­ telligence is "an extension of biological adaptation" and is characterized by ability to assimilate (develop in response to internal processes) and accommodate (respond to environmental intrusions). I have been asked to respond to Professor Jensen's paper from the standpoint of Piaget's genetic psychology of intelligence. While I clearly cannot speak for Piaget, only the "Patron" can do that, I can react as someone steeped in Piagetian theory and research and as one who looks at cognitive problems from the Gene• van perspective. Accordingly, while I hope that what I have to say would be acceptable to Piaget, I cannot guarantee that this is in fact the case, and must take full responsibility for whatever is said below. I plan to discuss, in the first section of the paper, some of the similarities between the Piagetian and psycho• metric positions. Then, in the second section, some of their differences will be pointed out. Finally, in the third section, I want to consider two related practical issues regarding the modification of intelligence. 319 Conceptual Similarities What struck me in reading Professor Jensen's paper, and what had not really occurred to me before, were the many parallels and affinities between the psy• chometric or mental test approach to the problem of intelligence and the devel• opmental approach as represented by Piaget.
    [Show full text]
  • Operations in Forming an Impression of Another Person
    JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 18, 217-234 (1982) The Informational Basis of Social Judgments: Operations in Forming an Impression of Another Person EUGENE BURNSTEIN AND YAACOV SCHUL The University of Michigan Received October 7. 1980 This paper describes four functionally distinct operations carried out in forming an impression of another person: Initial encoding, elaborative encoding, inte- gration, and decision. These processes were identified empirically on the basis of their differential sensitivity to the amount and the consistency of information in a trait description. In Study 1 as the trait set increased in size, processing was hindered to the greatest extent during initial encoding, to a moderate extent during elaborative encoding, and least during the integration-decision interval. Varying consistency produced the opposite pattern of results, that is, an incon- sistent trait description hindered processing the least during initial encoding, a moderate amount during elaborative encoding, and the most during the integra- tion-decision interval. In Study 2 the quantity of information was manipulated via implicit knowledge, that is, the associative structure activated by the trait (rather than set size). Because implicit information is “preintegrated,” impli- cation-rich traits did not hinder initial or elaborative encoding more than impli- cation-poor traits. The decision operation, however, was performed more rapidly with implication-rich traits than with implication-poor ones, which strongly sug- gests that once information is integrated, the “richer” the representation, the easier it is to arrive at a decision. Traditionally, research on social judgments in general, and impression formation in particular, has been concerned with the functional rela- tionship between properties of the judgment (e.g., the extremity of the impression) and properties of the stimulus information (e.g., the number of traits, their consistency).
    [Show full text]