Social cognition involves encoding, storing, retrieving, and processing social information in the brain about conspecifics. It involves both automatic and controlled processing. Schemas are mental frameworks that help organize social information and act as filters, but can also lead to errors and biases like stereotyping. Heuristics are simple rules or mental shortcuts used to make judgments that can be erroneous. Affect and cognition interact, as current moods and emotions can influence thoughts, memories, and judgments. Feelings shape thoughts and thoughts shape feelings in social cognition.

1. By :
Ar. Surashmie Gawande
Presenation

2. Social cognition is the
encoding, storage,
retrieval, and processing,
of information in the
brain, which relates to
conspecifics
(members of the same
species).
how do
we
think
about the
social world.?
Book : social psychology –
Baron , Branscombe ,Byrne and Bharadwaaj

3. • Schemas
• Heuristics
• Automatic
&
controlled
processing
• Errors in
social
cognition
• Affect and
cognition
Retrieve /
Use
Store /
remember
Process /
analyze
Encode /
interprete
Social Cognition
Systematic , logical , careful
, highly effortful manner
Fast , relatively effortless ,
intuitive manner
Controlled processing Automatic processing
Thinking

4. • An individuals Experience
( common / unique ) 
mental framework /
structure.
• There is also cultural sharing of
schemas . Indian people respect
paper , pencil etc.
• Schemas dominate peoples thoughts
and therefore behaviour 
hence IMPACT our understanding 
the social world & our relationship
with people
Schemas

5. Schemas: Mental frameworks  centered on specific themes  to
help  organizing , using Information …… EFFICIENTLY .
hence they act as FILTERS ………. But may vary across
cultural , social and economic categories .
Attention Retrieve
• Strong & well
developed schemas
are recovered or
where the extent of
mental effort was
put in
• Helps In quick 
Judgement about
people
• Consistency in
schemas generally
easy to recover .
Encode
• Information
consistent with
 schemas gets
encoded
• Also sharply
contrasting info
also gets stored
 with a TAG
• Information is
filtered
• Consistent
with schemas
gets noticed &
else is ignored
unless
extreme

6. Schemas : Priming , unpriming , persistence.
• Priming : has long lasting
effects generally / mostly
• Unpriming : deactivates
• Persistence : as schemas are
unaltered
• It is a situation that occurs when
stimuli / events  consciousness
of specific types of information
held in memory.
• The effects of priming vanish or
Reduces once they are expressed
in thought or behaviour
• Can give rise to Prejudice due to
distortion of our understanding
this is called perseverance effect.

7. What are Heuristics ?
 they are tactics for processing large amount of information
 inferences are drawn very quickly
 simple rules for making complex decisions
Representativeness :
judging by resemblance
• Have the basis  on
the extent to which
current stimuli/
events resemble
others ……. e.g. Traits ,
Behaviour
Attire , Manner , Style of a
person .
 But these can be
erroneous .
The Availability
heuristics :
• Have their basis 
The ease /
amount …….
of specific kinds of
inputs are brought to
mind …… e.g.
disease symptoms ,
event details etc.
Anchoring and adjustment :
• Based on the tendency to
use a number or value as
a starting point and to
which one makes an
adjustment.
• These adjustments are
insufficient to reflect
social reality since once a
plausible value is reached
the process is stopped .

8. Automatic processing & controlled processing :
the basic modes of social thought
• Non conscious
• Effortless
• Quick
• Automatic
• Beneficial
&
hence gives
more
satisfaction
in decision
making .
• Efficient ….
Proved through
research
• Occurs in Amygdala
• Careful
• Logical
• Systematic
• Effortful
• Non beneficial
sometimes
• Limitations to
processing
all information ,
dimensions /
elements
confusion and
ignore important
aspects
• Occurs in
prefrontal cortex.

9. Potential sources of Error  in social
cognition when individuals deviate from
rationality
Negativity bias Overt optimism
Basic ‘tilts’ i.e.
Sensitive to
certain types of
information
Gather
information
Decisions
Inferences
Judgements
Process it
i.e. sensitive to
negative information
Rather than positive
about others
• Can be reduced or eliminated
• Not universal
i.e. The predisposition
that…………….
things will be well
overall.
Overconfidence barrier
Planning fallacy
• External factors
• Overlook past
experiences

10. Situation specific sources of error :
COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING :
what might have been .
The tendency to think about other outcomes
than what has occurred .
MAGICAL THINKING :
Thinking involves assumptions that do not
follow a rationale
e.g. Fundamental traits / properties are shared
by similar things
THOUGHT SUPPRESSION:
Efforts to prevent certain thoughts from
entering our mind
Keep out unwanted thoughts 
prevention system gets activated
TERROR MANAGEMENT :
Thinking about unsettling outcomes of
imaginary or real threats / entities /
occurrences . E.g. belief in Supernatural

11. Affect and Cognition
Affect  Cognition . How?
• Current moods can cause an
individual to react positively /
negatively to stimulus /
situation / person
• Can influence creativity
• Good mood  tendency to
think heuristically
• Only mood consistent
information would be stored 
this is called mood congruent
effects
• Only specific types of information
is retrieved in current mood 
this is called mood dependent
memory

12. SO ………….
FEELINGS SHAPE THOUGHT &
THOUGHT SHAPE FEELINGS
Social thought is adaptable and often flows along channels which
help us to deal effectively with the complex social world we live
in…………
Cognition  Affect.
External factors cause us to react and
therefore understand our feelings and attitudes
Schemas === race, ethnicity , religion or
stereotype
Cause the same understanding .
Conscious choice / regulation of our current
state
 Current affect / mood

13. References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_cognition
http://ezequieldipaolo.wordpress.com/research/enactive_cognition/social-
cognition/
http://www.google.co.in/imgres?q=interactions+with+people
Thank you ………