Person memory and judgment.

Two general types of information about a person are considered in this article: One pertains to specific behaviors a person had manifested, and the other refers to more abstract personality dispositions or behavioral tendencies. A theoretical model of person memory that incorporates both types of information is developed. The model accounts for a large number of factors that are known to affect the recall of social information, the making of interpersonal judgments, and the relation between what is recalled and the judgments that are made. A major strength of the model is its applicability to a wide range of person memory and judgment phenomena that are observed in several different experimental paradigms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding frame-of-reference training: The impact of training on the recall of performance information.

Extends research on the cognitive mechanisms underlying frame-of-reference (FOR) rater training by examining the impact of FOR training on the recall of performance information. It was hypothesized that the shared performance schema fostered by FOR training would serve as the basis for information processing, resulting in better recall for behavioral performance information as well as more accurate ratings of individual ratees. 174 FOR-trained Ss produced more accurate performance ratings, as measured by L. Cronbach's (1955) differential accuracy and differential elevation components, than did 142 control-trained Ss. FOR-trained Ss also recalled more behaviors, representing more performance dimensions, and exhibited less evaluative clustering and a larger relationship between memory and judgment. No differences were found between control and FOR Ss on measures of recognition accuracy. Implications for the evaluative judgment process are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness.

The accuracy of strangers' consensual judgments of personality based on "thin slices" of targets' nonverbal behavior were examined in relation to an ecologically valid criterion variable. In the 1st study, consensual judgments of college teachers' molar nonverbal behavior based on very brief (under 30 sec) silent video clips significantly predicted global end-of-semester student evaluations of teachers. In the 2nd study, similar judgments predicted a principal's ratings of high school teachers. In the 3rd study, ratings of even thinner slices (6 and 15 sec clips) were strongly related to the criterion variables. Ratings of specific micrononverbal behaviors and ratings of teachers' physical attractiveness were not as strongly related to the criterion variable. These findings have important implications for the areas of personality judgment, impression formation, and nonverbal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organization of information in memory and the performance appraisal process: Evidence from the field.

No studies dealing with cognitive processes in performance appraisal have been conducted in field settings, raising questions about the usefulness of this research for practice. The field experiments described here, conducted in 2 organizations, were designed to evaluate interventions that laboratory research has suggested enable raters to better organize performance information in memory: structured diary keeping and structured recall. After these interventions, raters had more positive reactions to the appraisal process, were better able to recall performance information, and produced ratings that were less elevated and better able to discriminate between and within ratees. The implications of these results for practice and for cognitive research in performance appraisal are discussed, along with the limitations of these studies and the problems with criteria for evaluating ratings in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memorability judgments for high- and low-frequency words

Five experiments were conducted in order to examine subjects' judgments of the memorability of high- (HF) and low-frequency (LF) words in the context of a recognition memory task. In Experiment 1, the subjects were provided study/test experience with a list of HF and LF words prior to making memorability judgments for a new list of HF and LF items. The findings were consistent with previous evidence (Greene & Thapar, 1994; Wixted, 1992) suggesting that subjects are not explicitly aware of the greater recognition memorability of LF words. Experiments 2-5 embedded the memorability judgment task within the recognition test itself. In these experiments, the subjects consistently gave higher memorability ratings to LF items. The contrast between the pattern of results found when the subjects made their judgments at the time of list presentation (Experiment 1) and that when they made their judgments during the recognition test (Experiments 2-5) is consistent with recent evidence that even seemingly highly related metamnemonic judgments (e.g., ease of learning judgments vs. judgments of learning for the same items) may be based on very different factors if they occur at different points in the study/test cycle. The present findings are also consistent with the possibility that very rapid retrieval of memorability information for HF and LF words may affect recognition decisions and may contribute to the recognition memory word frequency effect.     

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)     

The relationship between memory and judgment depends on whether the judgment task is memory-based or on-line.

Five alternative information processing models that relate memory for evidence to judgments based on the evidence are identified in the current social cognition literature: independent processing, availability, biased retrieval, biased encoding, and incongruity-biased encoding. A distinction between 2 types of judgment tasks, memory-based vs online, is introduced and is related to the 5 process models. In 3 experiments, using memory-based tasks where the availability model described Ss' thinking, direct correlations between memory and judgment measures were obtained. In a 4th experiment, using online tasks where any of the remaining 4 process models may apply, prediction of the memory–judgment relationship was equivocal but usually followed the independence model prediction of zero correlation. It is concluded that memory and judgment will be directly related when the judgment was based directly on the retrieval of evidence information in memory-based judgment tasks. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and affective components of the judgement of environmental risks

The goal of the present study was to clarify the determinants underlying people's subjective appraisal of the riskiness of environmental problems for human beings. It is assumed that judgments of environmental risks are a function of their ratings on the relevant psychological risk dimensions. In a psychometric study, 186 subjects evaluated 30 environmental problems on 13 judgment scales. Regression analysis shows that the essential predictors of risk judgments are the perceived frequency of harm, the perceived amount of harm and the emotions evoked by thinking about the threats arising from environmental problems. The results show that the subjective judgment of both the perceived frequency and amount of harm vary according to the risk source. By contrast, the various emotions evoked by the different risk sources are explained above all by interindividual differences. The regression model does not satisfactorily predict the risk judgments for one class of environmental risks, namely the condition of and changes in the biosphere. This finding points to the conclusion that subjects use more specific evaluation criteria to evaluate this class of risks.     

Aging and impression formation: the impact of processing skills and goals

Two studies assessed age differences in representations and judgments about people. Our specific interest was in examining how presumed age-related changes in processing efficiency and motivation affected performance in an impression formation task. Consistent with age-related declines in processing efficiency, we found that increasing age was associated with: (a) no change in the processing of evaluative information; (b) less use of specific traits to organize impressions; (c) poorer memory for behavioral information, especially when it contradicted expectations; and (d) less systematic relationships between memory and judgments. We also found, however, that more meaningful task goals and a focus on individual behaviors resulted in reduced age differences in the nature of representations about the target person.     

Difficulties in the statistical control of halo.

Criticizes an article by F. Landy et al (see record 1981-00274-001) that suggested a method for statistically controlling halo error in ratings that involved partialing out an overall evaluation from specific performance appraisal items. It is argued that this implies that specific items ought to be unrelated to overall performance judgments and that observed correlations are the result of rater errors. It is also suggested that the Landy et al method inevitably removes some true score variance in ratings. The procedure is also criticized on the basis of an inappropriate unit of analysis. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social explanation: The role of timing, set, and recall on subjective likelihood estimates.

471 undergraduates, selected for interest in and knowledge of college football, read information about an upcoming football game and explained a hypothetical victory by 1 team. Some Ss knew of the outcome to be explained prior to reading the information. Others learned of the explanation task only after reading the information. Of these latter Ss, some were given an initial recall set with which to approach the information; others were given an impression set. Results show that explaining a victory by a team biased judgments of what would happen, but only in the before- and the after-recall set conditions. In both cases, judgments were highly correlated with the kinds of facts recalled. In the after-impression set condition, judgments were not biased in the direction of the outcome explained, and the correlations between judgments and what was recalled were small. It is proposed that judgments may be based either on facts available in memory at the time of judgment (for before- and after-recall set conditions) or on the basis of previous summary impressions (after-impression set condition). Implications for issues of encoding vs retrieval effects and the evaluative judgment–recall relationship are discussed. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do behavioral observation scales measure observation?

G. Latham and K. Wexley (see record 1980-02200-001) have claimed that behavioral observation scales (BOS) pose a simpler task for the rater than do either behaviorally anchored rating scales or graphic rating scales; with BOS, the rater need only observe and record behavior and need not make complex judgments about performance. Research on person memory suggests that recall for behaviors is structured by the same trait inferences and judgments that BOS are designed to avoid. In 2 experiments, 91 undergraduates rated videotaped lectures; data from the 1st experiment were used to construct BOS measuring clarity and speaking style. In the 2nd experiment, Ss used the BOS and a graphic rating scale to rate videotaped lectures in immediate and delayed rating conditions. As expected, the correlations between BOS ratings and judgmental ratings of performance were stronger when demands were placed on rater's recall. It is suggested that recall of behaviors is determined by the degree to which certain behaviors are representative of general judgments made about Ss being rated, and that BOS measure traitlike judgments rather than behavioral observation. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feeling of knowing in episodic memory following moderate to severe closed-head injury.

The ability to accurately monitor one's memory is a metacognitive process that is important in everyday life. The authors examined episodic memory feeling-of-knowing (FOK) ratings in 21 moderate to severe closed-head injury (CHI) participants (more than 1 year postinjury) and 21 controls. Participants studied 36 critical cue-target word pairs. Following a brief delay, they were asked to recall the target that corresponded to a given cue. Confidence ratings were made for recalled words, and FOK judgments were made for nonrecalled words in terms of the likelihood of recognizing the target word on a subsequent recognition test. CHI participants demonstrated less accurate recall but accurate ability to judge their recall performance (retrospective memory monitoring). They also demonstrated intact FOK judgments when providing binary judgments but demonstrated difficulties making finer discriminations on an ordinal scale (prospective memory monitoring). These findings suggest that memory monitoring is not a unitary construct. It is proposed that CHI participants may display intact memory monitoring when predictions are based on familiarity assessment but not when continued probing for additional episodic information is required. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A pattern recognition account of decision making

In the domain of pattern recognition, experiments have shown that perceivers integrate multiple sources of information in an optimal manner. In contrast, other research has been interpreted to mean that decision making is nonoptimal. As an example, Tversky and Kahneman (1983) have shown that subjects commit a conjunction fallacy because they judge it more likely that a fictitious person named Linda is a bank teller and a feminist than just a bank teller. This judgment supposedly violates probability theory, because the probability of two events can never be greater than the probability of either event alone. The present research tests the hypothesis that subjects interpret this judgment task as a pattern recognition task. If this hypothesis is correct, subjects' judgments should be described accurately by the fuzzy logical model of perception (FLMP)--a successful model of pattern recognition. In the first experiment, the Linda task was extended to an expanded factorial design with five vocations and five avocations. The probability ratings were described well by the FLMP and described poorly by a simple probability model. The second experiment included (1) two fictitious people, Linda and Joan, as response alternatives and (2) both ratings and categorization judgments. Although the ratings were accurately described by both the FLMP and an averaging of the sources of information, the categorization judgments were described better by the FLMP. These results reveal important similarities in recognizing patterns and in decision making. Given that the FLMP is an optimal method for combining multiple sources of information, the probability judgments appear to be optimal in the same manner as pattern-recognition judgments.     

The Influence of Self-Ratings versus Peer Ratings on Supervisors' Performance Judgments

This study investigated the extent to which supervisors use feedback from outside sources in making performance judgments. A simulation was conducted in which participants with organizational supervisory experience made an initial performance judgment about a profiled employee. Participants then received additional information that was discrepant from their initial judgment (positive or negative) from one of two sources (the profiled employee himself or one of his peers). The direction of the discrepant information and its source interacted in determining final ratings, such that, participants were more likely to use discrepant information to alter their performance judgments in a consistent direction when the source was a peer than when the source was the employee himself. Furthermore, participants' opinions about the usefulness of peer information for performance judgments moderated this interaction. Specifically, participants who believed that information from an employee's peers was useful, were more likely to use discrepant information provided by a peer when making final performance judgments than were participants who did not believe that information from an employee's peers was useful. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.     

Recognition memory for object form and object location: an event-related potential study

In this study, the processes associated with retrieving object forms and object locations from working memory were examined with the use of simultaneously recorded event-related potential (ERP) activity. Subjects memorized object forms and their spatial locations and made either object-based or location-based recognition judgments. In Experiment 1, recognition performance was higher for object locations than for object forms. Old responses evoked more positive-going ERP activity between 0.3 and 1.8 sec poststimulus than did new responses. The topographic distribution of these old/new effects in the P300 time interval was task specific, with object-based recognition judgments being associated with anteriorly focused effects and location-based judgments with posteriorly focused effects. Late old/new effects were dominant at right frontal recordings. Using an interference paradigm, it was shown in Experiment 2 that visual representations were used to rehearse both object forms and object locations in working memory. The results of Experiment 3 indicated that the observed differential topographic distributions of the old/new effects in the P300 time interval are unlikely to reflect differences between easy and difficult recognition judgments. More specific effects were obtained for a subgroup of subjects for which the processing characteristics during location-based judgments presumably were similar to those in Experiment 1. These data, together with those from Experiment 1, indicate that different brain areas are engaged in retrieving object forms and object locations from working memory. Further analyses support the view that retrieval of object forms relies on conceptual semantic representation, whereas retrieving object locations is based on structural representations of spatial information. The effects in the later time intervals may play a functional role in post-retrieval processing, such as recollecting information from the study episode or other processes operating on the products of the retrieval process, and presumably are mediated by right frontal cortical areas. The results support the view of functionally dissociable object and spatial visual working memory systems.