Person categories and social perception: Testing some boundaries of the processing effect of prior knowledge.

Investigated whether stereotypic knowledge would influence social perception in a more realistic setting. In Exp I, 96 undergraduates watched a videotape of a target woman identified either as a waitress or a librarian; Ss more accurately remembered features of the woman that were consistent with their prototype of a waitress (librarian) than features that were inconsistent. The prototype-consistency effect did not interact with the delay time before recognition memory was assessed. In Exp III, 56 Ss learned the occupational information either before or after watching the tape. The prototype-consistency effect from Exp I was replicated. In addition, knowing the target's occupation while watching her led to increased accuracy for both consistent and inconsistent information. The probable role of both encoding and retrieval processes in contributing to this effect is noted. Perceivers' stereotypic prior knowledge influenced their memory of a target person's behavior even in a realistic person-perception situation. Conditions that favor the memorability of consistent vs inconsistent information are discussed. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)