Why never forgetting a face matters: Visual imagery and social memory.

Tested the hypothesis that persons who tend to form vivid visual images of others have more accurate social memories than those who form relatively nonvivid visual images of others. In Exp I, using 186 undergraduates as Ss, vivid imagers outperformed nonvivid imagers in remembering details concerning the attitudes, activities, and life history of a woman whom they observed being interviewed. Exp II with 154 Ss provided more definitive evidence for the link between visual imagery and social memory by demonstrating that vivid imagers had more accurate memories after seeing an interviewee answer questions, whereas seeing the interviewee had no impact on the memories of nonvivid imagers. Results support the author's hypothesis that the relatively superior social memories of vivid imagers reside in their capacity for visual imagery rather than some covariate of imagery. The discussion considers the impact that imagery processes may have on a variety of social thought processes. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)