THEMATIC EFFECTS OF PERSON JUDGMENTS ON IMPRESSION ORGANIZATION

Conducted 3 experiments with a total of 321 undergraduates to investigate how person impressions become organized in memory. Consistent with recent research in cognitive psychology on thematic organization of information in memory, Exps I and II found that Ss were able to recall (as well as recognize up to a week later) descriptive traits that were relevant, as opposed to irrelevant, to an initial impression judgment. Furthermore, they tended to use judgment-relevant characteristics when asked to freely describe the stimulus person. Ss' memory for the initial impression judgment itself was excellent and not measurably affected by the relevance of the stimulus information on which it had been based. Exp III investigated 2 possible ways in which thematic organization of an impression might influence a subsequent memory-based judgment about a person. Consistent with other recent research, it was found that when making memory-based decisions, Ss relied on memory for an earlier thematic judgment rather than on memory for descriptive stimulus cues. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1979 American Psychological Association.