Retrieval selectivity in memory-based impression judgments.

Judgments about others are often based on memory for information about the persons being judged. Three studies with a total of 92 undergraduates are reported that used decision time to determine what information Ss selectively recall when they make memory-based person judgments. Each study employed a sequential judgment paradigm in which an S first made an impression judgment about a person on one dimension while stimulus information was continuously available. Immediately therafter, the S made a 2nd judgment about the same person on a different dimension without the stimulus information being available. It is concluded that Ss' memory-based judgments were based on memory for their 1st impression judgments combined with a selective memory search for negative stimulus information. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On-line and memory-based aspects of individual and group target judgments.

Ss were given instruction sets to induce either on-line or memory-based processing while reading behavioral statements about individual and group targets. Impression-set instructions induced on-line judgments, and comprehensibility-set (comp) instructions induced memory-based judgments regardless of target type. More important, with nondirective instructions (memory set), natural differences in processing information about individuals and groups were observed, with more on-line judgments for individuals. As expected, illusory correlations between minority targets and infrequent behaviors (a memory-based product) emerged with comp instructions (which induced memory-based judgments for both target types) and in the memory-set condition for group targets only. These data provide insights into the differences in impression formation for groups and individuals and furnish direct evidence of the processes responsible for illusory correlations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Initial impression versus missing information as explanations of the set-size effect.

The averaging model of information integration generally predicts a decelerating set-size effect (SSE), because it assumes that an "initial neutral impression" is always averaged with the information items that are presented. However, a modified averaging model, called the path-analytic averaging (PAA) model, predicts that the SSE will not always occur. What is considered the "initial impression" in the averaging model is reconceptualized as "inferred missing information" in the PAA model. When the number of presented items equals the number of items deemed important and both increase together, the PAA model predicts that there will be no SSE because there is no missing information. When the number of presented items increases, so that the added items provide information previously missing, a SSE should occur. These predictions of the PAA model were tested in an experiment in which 36 undergraduates rated the desirability of candidates for secretarial positions based on 1, 2, or 3 items of information. For most Ss, the PAA predictions were confirmed; for some Ss, however, the results are inconsistent with both the PAA model and the usual averaging model predictions. The latter Ss were distinguished from the others by their apparent use of scores less than the scale midpoint when they inferred information that was considered important but missing. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Order information and retrieval distinctiveness: Recall of common versus bizarre material.

The order-encoding hypothesis (E. L. DeLosh & M. A. McDaniel, 1996) assumes that serial-order information contributes to the retrieval of list items and that serial-order encoding is better for common items than bizarre items. In line with this account, Experiment 1 revealed better free recall and serial-order memory for common than for bizarre items in pure lists, and Experiment 2 showed that recall for bizarre items increased and the recall advantage of common items was eliminated when serial-order encoding for bizarre items was increased to the level of common items. However, inconsistent with a second assumption that bizarre-item advantages in mixed lists reflect better individual-item encoding for bizarre items, Experiments 3 and 4 showed that the bizarreness effect in mixed lists is eliminated when alternative retrieval strategies are encouraged. This set of findings is better explained by the differential-retrieval-process framework, which proposes that contextual factors (e.g., list composition) influence the extent to which various types of information are used at retrieval, with the bizarreness advantage in mixed lists dependent on a distinctiveness-based retrieval process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grouping information for judgments.

Models of cue weighting in judgment have typically focused on how decision-makers weight cues individually. Here, the authors propose that people might recognize and weight groups of cues. They examine how judgments change when decision-makers focus on cues individually or as parts of groups. Several experiments demonstrate that people can spontaneously pack information into cue groups. Moreover, group-level weighting depends on how people assess similarity or how they think of categorical hierarchies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory, retrieval, and contingency judgments.

Examined the likelihood that only a portion of the relevant information will be accessed when people consider the contingency between 2 variables, thus resulting in erroneous judgments. Inasmuch as people estimate contingency largely on the basis of frequency rather than probability information, severe imbalance in the marginal frequencies of either variable is a condition likely to lead to such errors. In Exp I, 243 undergraduates were exposed to the evidence in a 2?×?2 contingency table, where the 2 marginal frequencies for each variable differed in a ratio of 2:1. Ss were then cued to recall information corresponding to either a row or column of the table and judged the contingency between the 2 factors. It was found that the particular sample that was recalled significantly influenced the subsequent contingency judgment. In Exp II, 112 undergraduates read a mock news article in which 2 populations of differing frequencies were described. Analogous to Exp I, different forms of the article implicitly cued different samples of information. Later judgments about the intellectual ability of the 2 populations were influenced by the sample of information that was cued. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Familiarity and retrieval processes in delayed judgments of learning.

Two processes are postulated to underlie delayed judgments of learning (JOLs)--cue familiarity and target retrievability. The two processes are distinguishable because the familiarity-based judgments are thought to be faster than the retrieval-based processes, because only retrieval-based JOLs should enhance the relative accuracy of the correlations between the JOLs and criterion test performance, and because only retrieval-based judgments should enhance memory. To test these predictions, in three experiments, the authors either speeded people's JOLs or allowed them to be unspeeded. The relative accuracy of the JOLs in predicting performance on the criterion test was higher for the unspeeded JOLs than for the speeded JOLs, as predicted. The unspeeded JOL conditions showed enhanced memory as compared with the speeded JOL conditions, as predicted. Finally, the unspeeded JOLs were sensitive to manipulations that modified recallability of the target, whereas the speeded JOLs were selectively sensitive to experimental variations in the familiarity of the cues. Thus, all three of the predictions about the consequences of the two processes potentially underlying delayed JOLs were borne out. A model of the processes underlying delayed JOLs based on these and earlier results is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of the retrieval of item versus spatial position information

It has been argued that temporal and spatial position information are represented similarly, but prior research comparing their time course of retrieval with item information has not supported this conclusion. The time course of retrieval was compared for spatial position and item information in 3 response signal experiments, and differences were found in the time course of retrieval that paralleled those found previously for temporal position and item information (B.M. McElree & B.A. Dosher, 1993). The finding was unaffected by restrictions on the degree of relational support, postretrieval decision difficulty, and the elimination of a strategy favoring item recognition. The authors conclude by discussing whether the data indicate that a recall process was contributing to recognition performance.     

Pragmatic use of categorical information in impression formation.

In 3 experiments on impression formation, participants received categorical (occupation) and individuating information (behavior) about target persons presented either in random order (mixed presentation) or in blocks (blockwise presentation). Presentation mode should be a metainformational cue from which judges infer the purpose of the task. Mixed presentation is a cue for differentiation between categories, and the integration of a category-specific typical case leads to reduced differentiation within categories, assimilation, and, hence, enhanced differentiation between categories. Blocked presentation is a cue for differentiation within categories, and consideration of category boundaries as a frame of reference leads to enhanced differentiation within categories and a concomitant contrast effect. The findings of Experiments 1 and 2 supported this reasoning. Experiment 3 showed, in addition, that an explicit task instruction and the metainformational cue lead to equivalent results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Idiosyncratic weighting of trait information in impression formation.

Analyzes the role of unequal weighting (UW) in the averaging model of information integration. A distinction is made between UW at the normative level (which has been referred to as "differential weighting") and UW at the level of the individual S (which is here called "idiosyncratic weighting"—IW). The prevalence of IW in the trait-judgment impression formation task was examined in 2 studies. Whereas most past research on the question of UW in this task involved averaging responses across both Ss and stimulus replications, the present studies were analyzed at the level of an individual S's repeated responses to separate stimulus replications. Clear evidence of IW was obtained from half of the 120 undergraduate Ss; only 20% of Ss indicated no tendency toward UW. There was no evidence that IW was restricted to just a subset of stimuli, since all of the 20 stimulus replications showed IW effects. In more than 20% of the instances of UW, the more positive trait was accorded a higher weight. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beneficial impression management: Strategically controlling information to help friends.

It was hypothesized that people will strategically regulate information about the identities of friends to help them create desired impressions on audiences. Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants described a friend consistently with the qualities preferred by an attractive, opposite-sex individual but inconsistently with the qualities preferred by an unattractive, opposite-sex individual. Experiment 2 showed that a friend who had a high social need to make a good impression on an interviewer was described more positively than a friend who did not have such a need or a stranger regardless of social need. Impression management to benefit friends by promoting and protecting their desired identities may be one of the more common and pleasant forms of help giving in everyday life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological deficit versus impression management in schizophrenic word association performance.

Schizophrenic performance has been interpreted as being the result of ability loss and of impression management. An experiment is reported which allows a direct test of the ability loss assumption as opposed to one form of the impression management hypothesis. 20 healthy presenter and 20 sick presenter schizophrenics were given differential "normative" information concerning the meaning of word association performance. Healthy presenters shifted their performance in the direction predicted by the impression management hypothesis but sick presenters did not. Results suggest that the likelihood of occurrence of impression management depends heavily on the degree of pathology displayed by S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Flexible use of recent information in causal and predictive judgments.

Associative and statistical theories of causal and predictive learning make opposite predictions for situations in which the most recent information contradicts the information provided by older trials (e.g., acquisition followed by extinction). Associative theories predict that people will rely on the most recent information to best adapt their behavior to the changing environment. Statistical theories predict that people will integrate what they have learned in the two phases. The results of this study showed one or the other effect as a function of response mode (trial by trial vs. global), type of question (contiguity, causality, or predictiveness), and postacquisition instructions. That is, participants are able to give either an integrative judgment, or a judgment that relies on recent information as a function of test demands. The authors concluded that any model must allow for flexible use of information once it has been acquired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Framing discrimination: Effects of inclusion versus exclusion mind-sets on stereotypic judgments.

Three studies investigated how inclusion versus exclusion strategies differentially lead to stereotypic decisions. In inclusion strategies, suitable targets are selected from a list of candidates, whereas in exclusion strategies, unsuitable candidates are eliminated. Across 2 separate target domains (Study 1: male and female politicians; Studies 2 and 3: African American and European American basketball players), exclusion strategies, as compared with inclusion strategies, elicited higher levels of both sensitivity stereotyping (i.e., greater difficulty distinguishing among members of stereotyped groups) and criterion stereotyping (i.e., setting different decision thresholds for judging members of different groups; see M. R. Banaji & A. G. Greenwald, 1995). Thus, the strategy used during decision making can influence the final decision via 2 theoretically distinct stereotyping mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some problems in dissonance theory research on information selectivity.

Inconsistent results obtained from information selectivity experiments based upon dissonance theory may result from fundamental problems in research designs. The hypotheses tested do not necessarily follow from dissonance theory when the research design uses 2 levels of dissonance. The theory predicts curves of seeking and avoiding with at least quadratic components. In many experiments, the curves are treated instead as positively sloped, linear functions of dissonance. The methods used do not clearly separate seeking from avoiding. Interest in information, used as an index of both seeking and avoiding, is not necessarily an index of avoiding. Ratings, rankings, and time spent looking at information, as they have been used in dissonance research, do not allow separation of seeking and avoiding. A typical research design uses a choice between supporting and opposing information, both to create dissonance and to measure its effects. This technique creates a situation in which both dissonance and dissonance reduction would be expected prior to the choice of information. Selectivity research is concerned with seeking behavior which would also be predicted from curiosity motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress impairs retrieval of socially relevant information.

Several studies have reported that stress impairs memory retrieval, even though findings are not unequivocal. Moreover, memory for socially relevant information was not previously investigated. The present study aimed to test the effects of stress on the retrieval of social memory (e.g., memory concerning names, birthdays, or biographies). In a randomized cross-over experiment, the cognitive performance of 29 subjects (15 women) was tested twice. Social memory was tested in a stress session, in which participants were exposed to a brief standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor between encoding and retrieval. Performance was compared with a stress-free control session. Stress exposure caused an increase in cortisol concentrations and changes in several mood measures. Social memory retrieval was reduced in the stress compared with the control session. An association between the cortisol stress response and poorer retrieval was significant in responders, that is, those participants displaying a cortisol rise after stress onset. Thus, similar to other forms of declarative memory, the retrieval of declarative memory for socially relevant information learned from biographical notes is impaired after acute stress exposure. This effect is linked to the stress-induced cortisol increase. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)