The study of social cognition has had a profound impact on the field of social psychology over the last two decades. Many topics covered throughout the book have been researched from a social cognitive perspective. In this chapter, special attention is focused on some "pure" social cognitive phenomena, such as categorization and stereotyping, heuristics and mental simulations, and social world beliefs. Understanding of these topics will be beneficial when reading further in later chapters about topics such as attitudes, persuasion, and prejudice.