Chapter . Critical Learning Exercises - Thinking About People and Events

Students’ responses will vary but may discuss how, when we are exposed to and pay attention to fake news, which is essentially providing us with false information about an event (or alleged event), we may encode that information into short-term memory, which can later get stored in long-term memory. Thus, we could remember the information as being real since we created a memory of it. Also, since it is easier to remember information that fits one of our schemas, we are more likely to create false memories for fake news if the information regarding the alleged events fits what we believe could have happened. If we are busy or unmotivated, we are more likely to rely on these schemas to attend to and remember information that fits those schemas.

This scenario will result in different questions that could be considered but may include the following: Are other students falling asleep? How long into the lecture did this behavior happen? Is the room unusually cold or warm? What time of day does the class take place? Did the lecture encourage engagement from the students? Did the lecture include too much detail or factual information? Does this student always fall asleep? If the response assumes the student is the cause, then additional information may be needed regarding the student’s schedule at school, work, and home; overall health issues or sleep problems; motivation to learn the material; major and reason for taking the class; and so on.

Students’ experiences with counterfactual thinking will differ, but they should correctly identify whether they used upward (imagined a better outcome than what actually happened) or downward (imagined a worse outcome than what actually happened) counterfactuals. Upward counterfactuals tend to result in negative feelings but may have helped students better prepare for the future. However, downward counterfactuals tend to result in more positive feelings but don’t tend to help people better prepare them for the future, only feel better about the past.

Students’ responses will vary but will likely illustrate how their schemas shaped what they thought of the person to form their first impression, and how contradicting or more detailed information changed that initial impression.