Identifying the sources of social actions: The role of source cues in person memory.

Memory for social information is typically assessed by means of free-recall procedures that do not require Ss to identify the sources of social actions (i.e., the actor). Two studies are reported that explore people's ability to remember consistent and inconsistent actions when recall is cued with the sources of the social actions (i.e., group affiliation and person cues). Accurate and inaccurate source identification measures were taken. Study 1 explored how familiarity with the names and group affiliations of the target persons affected the pattern of source identifications in group and proper-name cue conditions. Study 2 investigated the role of impression formation and explanatory processing on source identification. The ability to identify the sources of actions varied across cue conditions and across judgmental tasks. The implications these findings have for free- vs. cued-recall mechanisms and for the representation of individuals and groups in memory were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)