Personal adjustment and the free recall of materials with affectively positive or negative meaningfulness.

Conducted 2 experiments on the role of affective assessment in human verbal learning. In Exp I, 40 high school students grouped according to Tennessee Self-Concept Scale scores were given consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams as learnable items. Ss with high self-concepts learned the trigrams they liked more rapidly than disliked trigrams. Ss with low self-concepts reversed this customary pattern and learned disliked trigrams more rapidly than liked trigrams. In Exp II, 64 undergraduates who had completed the Barron Ego-Strength scale were given real words as learnable materials. Results showed that it was possible for the same S to learn certain words along a negative and other words along a positive reinforcement-value sequence. This depended upon whether the word meanings involved reflected a problem area or an area of competence for the Ss being studied. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Believing another likes or dislikes you: Behaviors making the beliefs come true.

Tested the idea that when target persons believe that a perceiver has a general negative evaluation of them, especially after a personal encounter, the targets would be unlikely to believe that the perceiver's behavior can be modified easily, resulting in an expectancy confirmation. This expectancy confirmation should occur regardless of the target's self-perceptions. 60 undergraduates participated in a 2 (expectancy [like or dislike])?×?2 (role [perceiver or target])?×?2 (self-likability [high or low]) factorial study. Results show that falsely leading Ss to believe that another liked or disliked them led Ss to be actually liked or disliked. Ss who believed they were liked after a personal encounter self-disclosed more, disagreed less, expressed dissimilarity less, and had a more positive tone of voice and general attitude than Ss who believed they were disliked. These behaviors led to reciprocal behaviors on the part of the other. No differences were obtained in number of conversations initiated, compliments, eye gaze, forward leaning, or placement of the chair. Being liked was also correlated with self-disclosure, expressions of similarity and dissimilarity, voice tone, and general attitude. Perceived self-likability was correlated with the belief that one was liked and tended to be correlated with actually being liked. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Getting what you want by revising what you had.

Previous research has demonstrated that people recall their past in ways that exaggerate its consistency with their current condition. It is argued that whether people perceive stability or change in themselves depends, in part, on the theory they invoke to reconstruct their past. Two studies, with 106 undergraduates, addressed the impact of a potentially invalid theory of change on the recall of personal histories. Some Ss participated in a study-skills improvement program that promised more than it delivered. Ss initially evaluated their study skills and then were randomly assigned either to a waiting list control condition or to the study skills program. Three weeks later, all Ss were asked to recall as accurately as possible their initial skills evaluation. Program participants recalled their evaluations as being worse than they had actually reported; waiting list Ss exhibited no systematic bias in recall. Program participants also reported greater improvement in study skills and expected better final exam grades than did waiting list Ss. Actual grades did not differ in either study. Nonetheless, 6 mo later program participants overestimated their academic performance for the term during which the program was conducted. Results support the hypothesis that people can claim support for invalid theories of change by reconstructing their pasts. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Here's Looking at Me: The Effect of Memory Perspective on Assessments of Personal Change.

Five studies manipulated the memory perspective (1st-person vs. 3rd-person) individuals used to visually recall autobiographical events and examined its effects on assessments of personal change. Psychotherapy clients recalled their first treatment (Study 1), and undergraduates recalled past social awkwardness (Study 2). Participants who were induced to recall from the 3rd-person perspective believed, and acted as though (Study 2), they had changed more since the events occurred. Subsequent studies revealed a crucial moderator: Third-person recall produces judgments of greater self-change when people are inclined to look for evidence of change, but lesser self-change when they are inclined to look for evidence of continuity. This pattern emerged when motivation (Studies 1 and 2), goals (Study 3), instructions (Study 4), and self-esteem (Study 5) determined participants' focus on change versus continuity. Results have implications for constructivism in memory and judgment and for the ability to sustain self-improvement efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constraints on the effects of mood on memory.

In Study 1, pleasant and unpleasant personality trait words and abstract nouns were encoded in neutral mood and recalled in either induced depressed or induced happy mood, using 32 female and 32 male undergraduates assigned in equal numbers to 1 of the 4 conditions. Females recalled more pleasant than unpleasant words when in a happy mood and more unpleasant than pleasant words when in a depressed mood. Males failed to show this effect. Both sexes responded equally well to the induction procedures. There were no sex differences in pleasantness ratings of the words to be recalled. A prediction that differential effects of mood on recall would be greater for trait words than abstract nouns was not confirmed. In Study 2, everyday usage ratings by 36 Ss from Study 1 were obtained for the trait words from Study 1. Females gave higher usage ratings than males and, within the females, usage predicted the extent to which a word was preferentially recalled in a congruent mood state. Findings are discussed in relation to the associative network model of mood and memory, sex differences in depression, and cognitive vulnerability to depression. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How much and how fast: Rapid processing of spoken language in later adulthood.

Conducted 2 experiments, using 36 older adults (aged 61–82 yrs) and 24 undergraduates, in which Ss listened to and immediately recalled sentences that were systematically varied in speech rate and number of propositions. Although recall performance of the older Ss showed a disproportionate decline when speech rate was increased, older Ss, as well as the younger Ss, were able to recall sentences of increasing propositional densities. It was also found that the tendency to recall a greater proportion of main ideas than details (the levels effect) was enhanced by increased propositional density and depressed by increased speech rate and increased age. These results are discussed in terms of an age-related change in the rate at which information can be processed in working memory. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond the actor's traits: forming impressions of actors, targets, and relationships from social behaviors

Perceivers who observe social behaviors may form impressions not only of actors' traits but also of people as targets and of interpersonal relationships. In Study 1, Ss read about 4 individuals' behaviors under instructions to form actor-, target-, and relationship-based impressions. Ss then read additional behavioral information that they later tried to recall. Ss accurately perceived actor, target, and relationship effects in the presented information, and they better recalled subsequent behaviors that were consistent with all 3 types of impressions. In Study 2, Ss thought of 4 people they knew and judged how much each liked the other 3. These ratings revealed actor, target, and relationship effects as well as individual and dyadic reciprocity. Perceivers can form relatively accurate impressions of people as actors and as targets and accurate impressions of relationships between people, and these impressions influence memory for further behaviors.     

Extraversion, social cognition, and the salience of aversiveness in social encounters.

Conducted 2 studies to determine whether introverts and extraverts systematically differ in their expectations, recall, and evaluation of social encounter. In Study 1, 102 male undergraduate students (classified as either introvert or extravert based on the Extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) evaluated games on rating scales. All Ss rated the competitive game as more arousing and potentially punishing than the cooperative game, but introverts anticipated that the competitive game would be less friendly and likable than did the extraverts. In Study 2, 61 undergraduates believed they would participate in either a cooperative or a competitive game. Ss were shown slides of all other Ss (teammates and opponents), as well as bogus biographical information. Ss were then asked to recall information and evaluate each S on rating scales. Introverts recalled more information about opponents than about their own teammates and rated all Ss less positively during the competitive encounter. For extraverts, this pattern was reversed. Results are discussed in terms of individual differences in the salience of aversiveness in social encounters. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Telling lies.

Men and women (20 each) were videotaped while describing someone they liked, someone they disliked, someone they were ambivalent about, someone they were indifferent about, someone they liked as though they disliked him or her, and someone they disliked as though they liked him or her. Accuracy at detecting that some deception had occurred was far greater than accuracy at detecting the true underlying affect, and Ss who were good at detecting that deception was occurring were not particularly skilled at reading the speakers' underlying affects. However, Ss whose deception attempts were more easily detected by others also had their underlying affects read more easily. Speakers whose lies were seen more readily by men also had their lies seen more readily by women, and observers better able to see the underlying affects of women were better able to see the underlying affects of men. Skill at lying successfully was unrelated to skill at catching others in their lies. A histrionic strategy (hamming) was very effective in deceiving others, and this strategy was employed more by more Machiavellian Ss, who also tended to get caught less often in their lies. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors in the serial recall of names of acquaintances.

2 experiments in recall were conducted to determine the effects of pleasure, frequency, recency, acquaintance, and construction variables, and to compare the effect of the pleasure variable with that of height in order to rule out extraneous ranking habits. In the first experiment 137 Ss were given a first name and asked to recall 8 living acquaintances who had this name. Then they were asked to rank the recalled names as to: (1) how well they liked each person; (2) how frequently they have had contact; (3) how recently; and (4) how well they know him. They were also asked to put the names into 3 groups so that each group was alike and at the same time different from the other groups. Rankings in the first 4 tasks were highly correlated with the order in which the names were recalled. On the grouping task, order of recall fell short of a significant relationship with the construct groupings. 24 Ss were used in the second experiment. The pleasure-order of recall correlation was significantly greater than 0, but the height-order of recall was not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood, recall, and sensitivity effects in normal college students.

Three experiments with 578 undergraduates explored the relation between normal variation in depressed mood and memory. Mood was assessed via the Beck Depression Inventory and Multiple Affect Adjective Check List. Ss read and subsequently recalled stories, in which protagonists experienced good, bad, and neutral events. Contrary to predictions arising independently from capacity theory and from schema theory, the recall of depressed and nondepressed Ss did not differ in either overall level or in affective content. Results are not easily handled by a conceptualization of depression linked with schema theory, which proposes that negative cognitions are important for the initiation and maintenance of depression. The general usefulness of induction procedures in research on the depressive syndrome is discussed. (69 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of number signals on reading and recall.

Examined the influence of number signals (i.e., numbers or number words preceding important textual information) on text recall. 120 undergraduates read and recalled 2 texts containing 10 target sentences each. Reading times were recorded for each target sentence. For half of the Ss, the target sentences were preceded by numbers indicating their organization; for the other half, the target sentences were not signaled. Half of the Ss completed a free-recall task, while the remainder completed a cued-recall task. Results indicate that Ss read target sentences more slowly if they were signaled than if they were unsignaled. Ss' recalls of target information followed the text organization more closely if the sentences were signaled. Signaling aided free recall of target sentences, but had no effect on cued recall. Results demonstrate that number signals directed attention to the sentences they marked, led to better encoding of the organization of target information, and influenced the process of recalling the target information. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The adaptive function of sleep: The differential effects of sleep and dreaming on recall.

Tested the hypothesis that REM sleep serves an adaptive function by examining the effects of sleep and dreaming vs. dream deprivation on the recall of ego-threatening or nonthreatening material. Ss were 40 undergraduates with high ego strength, as measured by the Rorschach Concept Evaluation Technique and the Psychological Insight Test. Ss were given an interrupted task paradigm under conditions which would lead to a threat to self-esteem for failed items, and were tested for recall after REM-deprivation, NREM awakening, or 2 or 10 hr. of daytime activity. Scores on the Repression-Sensitization scale were also examined in relation to ego strength and recall on the interrupted task. Results show that Ss who slept recalled neutral material better than Ss who did not sleep, and Ss who had REM sleep recalled threatening material better than those who had no opportunity to dream. It is concluded that NREM sleep facilitates retention of nonemotional material, while REM sleep deals with material containing affective components. (39 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Biased recollections in older adults: The role of implicit theories of aging.

Explored how older adults recall the traits they possessed at an earlier age. It was hypothesized that older adults' recollections would be related to their theories about aging. In Study 1, a group of older Ss provided their theories concerning how various traits change with age. Another group of older Ss rated their current status on these traits and recalled the status they possessed at a younger age. In addition, a group of younger adults rated their current status on the same traits. On traits theorized to increase with age, older Ss recalled themselves as possessing lower levels at an earlier age than the younger group reported possessing. On traits theorized to decrease with age, older Ss recalled themselves as possessing higher levels at an earlier age than the younger group reported possessing. Study 2 indicated that this effect is obtained regardless of trait positivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social desirability and the description of others.

Ss were asked to use Leary's Interpersonal Check List (ICL) to describe people they liked, disliked, and knew well but neither liked nor disliked. Social Desirability Scale (SD) values had been obtained on each of the 12 items of the ICL in a previous study by Edwards (see 32: 464). The present list selections were evaluated in terms of this dimension. Liked people are characterized by items high in SD; disliking people correlates less, but in the predicted direction. A positive relationship also exists between a Ss own SD score and that he attributes to others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective recall of positive and negative feedback, self-control behaviors, and depression.

Tested 2 sets of hypotheses, derived from cognitive–behavioral theories of depression, that (a) compared to a sample of nondepressed controls, depressed Ss would underestimate the frequency of reinforcement and overestimate the frequency of punishment received during an ambiguous laboratory task; and (b) when given the opportunity to self-reinforce or self-punish, depressed Ss would self-reinforce less often and self-punish more often than controls. Three of these predictions were supported. In an experiment with 24 depressed and 21 nondepressed undergraduates (Beck Depression Inventory), depressed Ss recalled less positive and more negative feedback than controls. As expected, these differences were significant only at a high rate of reinforcement and at a low rate of punishment. In the latter condition, however, depressed Ss were accurate in their recall, while nondepressed Ss underestimated the frequency of negative feedback. Depressed Ss self-reinforced less often than controls, but there were no differences in rates of self-punishment. Implications for cognitive and behavioral theories of depression are discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Output interference in long-term memory.

Reports 2 experiments, with 70 and 140 undergraduates, concerning the role of output interference on the recall of organized material. Groups of Ss received blocked presentation of a 49-item list consisting of 7 items in each of 7 categories. At recall, the category name served as the retrieval cue. In Exp. I, a 20-sec recall interval was allowed for each category and 10 Ss were assigned to each group. In Exp. II, this interval was increased to 90 sec. and 20 Ss were assigned to each group. Results of both studies indicate that the number of words recalled from a category is dependent on the position of the category in the output sequence. In general, the earlier a category appears in the output sequence, the greater the number of words recalled from that category. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suggested amnesia and disorganized recall in hypnotic and task-motivated subjects.

Submitted 52 undergraduates to task motivation or hypnotic treatment. Ss were then given an amnesia suggestion for a previously learned list of categorized words. The number of words recalled and the extent to which they were recalled in clusters were compared before, during, and after lifting the amnesia suggestion. Results show that more hypnotic Ss than task-motivated Ss showed amnesia. Furthermore, hypnotic Ss, but not task-motivated Ss, showed less clustering during the suggestion than they did before or after the suggestion. The Ss who showed at least partial failure to recall during the suggestion were classified into 3 groups: (a) those who remembered but did not verbalize the words, (b) those who experienced amnesia as an effortful process involving distraction or forceful suppression, and (c) those who simply relaxed and experienced amnesia as an effortless process. A theoretical model is tentatively advanced to account for these data. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Note-taking, individual differences, and memory for lecture information.

Investigated the encoding function of note taking and processing differences between successful and less successful students in lecture situations in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 48 undergraduates either took notes or listened during a lecture. Different memory patterns were found for these 2 groups, with note-takers recalling many more high- than low-importance propositions and listeners recalling an equal number of high- and low-importance propositions. Results suggest that note taking enhanced organizational processing of lecture information. In Exp II, the notes and recall of 80 successful and less successful students were compared. Successful Ss recalled more of the most important propositions, but these 2 groups of Ss did not differ in their recall of less important propositions. For both groups of Ss, recall content was closely related to the content of the notes, with successful Ss recording more high-importance propositions in their notes. Also, successful and less successful Ss were similar in their note-taking styles and the degree to which they benefited from reviewing their notes. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)