Pearson BTEC National Applied Psychology: Book 1 Revised Edition

Memory scripts Psychologists o¡en use the terms cognitive scripts and memory scripts interchangeably – they are basically referring to the same thing. What is a memory script? A memory script contains knowledge of how a social situation ‘plays out’. It includes what we can usually expect to happen in a situation, how we should behave and what the consequences could be. The classic example is the restaurant script (Schank and Abelson 1977). This memory script includes our knowledge and expectations of the setting (the restaurant itself), props (menus, tables, etc.) and actors (waiting staff, customers, chefs and so on). Features of memory scripts Using the example of a restaurant script, here are some of the main features of memory scripts: • They are broken down into scenes ordered by time. For example, you enter the restaurant rst, then sit at a table, then you order, eat and nally pay the bill. • They concern multiple goals, e.g. to satisfy hunger, to enjoy the occasion, to impress a partner, etc. • They are dynamic and evolve with experience (including from TV and other media) – the more o¡en you visit restaurants, the more re ned and detailed your restaurant script becomes. • They are in«uenced by culture, which is not surprising because they re«ect our experiences – for example, in most restaurants in China, customers nd a table themselves. • They in«uence memory – we remember events that are consistent with a script (because that is what we expect), but we may also remember those events that are inconsistent (because they stand out). Person perception What is person perception? When we meet someone new, we do not view (‘perceive’) them as an individual person with their own unique combination of traits. Instead, we quickly categorise them – that is, we mentally place them into a group or ‘type’ of people (o¡en just on the basis of what the person looks or sounds like). How person perception works Making assumptions There are gaps in our knowledge of someone new to us. But once we have categorised the person, we ll in the gaps with information from memory about that category, even if the information is wrong. Our memories contain our knowledge of other people’s personalities, especially which characteristics typically go together. For example, if you view someone as ‘outgoing’, you probably assume they have a few other attributes as well, such as being impulsive and loud. Stereotyping and bias This knowledge can be wrong because it is partly based on stereotypes (see page 28). In other words, we assume the person in front of us is representative of a group – they are ‘this type of person’. Therefore, person perception is not objectively accurate, but is affected by our own cognitive biases (see next spread). A danger of this process is that we may later recall information about the person that matches the category we put them in. Specification terms Cognitive scripts Information stored in memory that describes the behaviours typical in a given situation. They are automatically retrieved to guide our behaviour. They are also known as memory scripts. Memory scripts See above. Person perception Information stored in memory about which personality characteristics o¡en go together, which guides our impressions of other people. Your first day Do you remember your first day at college or your school sixth form? Or in a part-time job? Were you a bit anxious beforehand? Maybe you were worried you wouldn’t know what you were doing or where you were meant to be, especially if you went to a new place altogether. On the other hand, perhaps you did have a bit of an idea about what to expect. After all, you’ve often been in situations ‘for the first time’ and some of them were probably similar to your first day at college/sixth form. You remembered some of these experiences and they helped to prepare you. You might not have known which classroom to go to, but you knew how to behave like a student when you got there. You didn’t know when your psychology lessons would be, but you knew what a timetable is and what it’s for. It’s almost as if you knew the script for a play called ‘My First Day’. Key concept 5: The role of cognitive scripts Content area A1: Cognitive approach OK, he’s friendly. But what else is he? Kind, helpful, clever, shy? 20 Unit 1: Psychological approaches and applications Copyright: Sample material

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