Cognition

Cognition is a common label for processes and structures which have to do with perception, recognition, recall, imagination, concept, thought, but also supposition, expectation, plan and problem solving. It should be distinguished between cognition as process and cognition as the result of this process (see Dorsch Psychologisches Wörterbuch, 1994).

Social cognition: Social cognition is a label for processes that are instigated by social information. As a meta-theoretical perspective, social cognition has been applied to a variety of topic domains including person perception, stress and coping, survey responding, attitude-behavior relations, group processes, political decisions and even more domains. The basic processes that presumably operate in the range of domains are conceptualized within the research on perception of behavior, encoding, inferring, explaining, storing, retrieving, judging, generating overt responses. Research in this domain takes this information flow beyond a single individual into social interaction.

See also: information processing, representation, schema, script, social psychology

Literature: Dorsch Psychologisches Wörterbuch (1994), Martin & Clark (1990)

Entry by: Eric Igou

June 11, 1999
Direct questions and comments to: Glossary master