This is an application for continued support of an ongoing program of research on the mental representations and processes that underlie significant phenomena in social psychology, particularly social judgement and inference, person perception, and stereotyping. These topics relate to mental health in several ways. For example, stereotypes contribute to concrete social conditions (such as prejudice and discrimination) that affect many people's mental health, and negative stereotypes also affect people's reactions to the mentally ill. The proposal's major objective is to continue developing and testing a new class of connectionist theoretical models, which are based on the properties of multiple interconnected processing units rather than symbolic representations and rules, within social psychology. Predictions from such models, generated in precise form by computer simulations. Will be compared with results from existing studies and three empirical studies will be conducted under this proposal, on the topics of accessibility of mental representations, stereotype change, and connectionist models of attitudes, motives, and social influence and interaction. The broader goals of this research are (a) to contribute to the further development of connectionist models by relating them to core theories and findings of social psychology; (b) to work toward incorporating social psychology within the increasing integration of various areas of psychology (particularly cognitive, developmental, and behavioral neuroscience) that has been driven by the increased use of connectionist models in many areas; and (c) to use connectionist models to shed new light on key aspects of social judgement and behavior, especially person perception, stereotyping, and prejudice.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01MH046840-07
Application #
2394777
Study Section
Social and Group Processes Review Committee (SGP)
Project Start
1991-09-01
Project End
2000-04-30
Budget Start
1997-09-01
Budget End
1998-04-30
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
1997
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Purdue University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
072051394
City
West Lafayette
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47907
DeCoster, Jamie; Claypool, Heather M (2004) A meta-analysis of priming effects on impression formation supporting a general model of informational biases. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 8:2-27
Queller, Sarah; Smith, Eliot R (2002) Subtyping versus bookkeeping in stereotype learning and change: connectionist simulations and empirical findings. J Pers Soc Psychol 82:300-13
Mackie, D M; Devos, T; Smith, E R (2000) Intergroup emotions: explaining offensive action tendencies in an intergroup context. J Pers Soc Psychol 79:602-16
Smith, E R; Murphy, J; Coats, S (1999) Attachment to groups: theory and measurement. J Pers Soc Psychol 77:94-110
Semin, G R; Smith, E R (1999) Revisiting the past and back to the future: memory systems and the linguistic representation of social events. J Pers Soc Psychol 76:877-92
Mackie, D M; Smith, E R (1998) Intergroup relations: insights from a theoretically integrative approach. Psychol Rev 105:499-529
Stewart, T L; Doan, K A; Gingrich, B E et al. (1998) The actor as context for social judgments: effects of prior impressions and stereotypes. J Pers Soc Psychol 75:1132-54
Smith, E R; DeCoster, J (1998) Knowledge acquisition, accessibility, and use in person perception and stereotyping: simulation with a recurrent connectionist network. J Pers Soc Psychol 74:21-35
Smith, E R (1996) What do connectionism and social psychology offer each other? J Pers Soc Psychol 70:893-912
Smith, E R; Fazio, R H; Cejka, M A (1996) Accessible attitudes influence categorization of multiply categorizable objects. J Pers Soc Psychol 71:888-98

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