STUDENT NUMBER: 55523870
UNIQUE NUMBER: PYC4803

Introduction
We often attempt to reduce the effort we expand on social cognition- how we think about other people and events. Given our limited capacity to process information, we often experience information overload. To deal with complex information where the correct answer is not obvious, we make use of heuristics. (According to Robert A. Baron, Nyla R. Branscombe, Social Psychology, 13th ed. People often use mental shortcuts or rules to arrive at judgements). These judgements taken are known as Heuristics. The different types of heuristics help in making judgements of situations and people. Along with the heuristics there are other outlines that also play a part in perceptions and judgements of people, these are: Schemas and Automatic and controlled processing. In relation to the story of Victoria and the perceptions made by my friend and myself these outlines can be broken down in understanding how we came up with our impressions her.

Heuristics
Simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing inferences in a rapid manner and seemingly effortless manner. (Robert A. Baron, Nyla R. Branscombe, Social Psychology, 13th ed). In relation to the impression of Victoria taken by myself and my friend we both made came to conclusions at a rushed manner without getting acquainted with the subject. There are a number of heuristics that can be discussed in finding out how our perceptions were different.

Representativeness Heuristic
(Robert A. Baron, Nyla R. Branscombe, Social Psychology, 13th ed) defined it as being: A strategy for making judgements based on the extent to which current stimuli or events resemble other stimuli or categories. The more a person resembles or matches a group the more likely he or she may belong to that group judging by resemblance. Due to Victoria being a psychology student and