MEMORY FOR TRAIT INFORMATION - SIGNAL-DETECTION ANALYSIS

A recognition memory experiment was conducted in order to learn about the nature of the impression subjects form when given a list of trait adjectives. When they arrived at the experiment, subjects were given a list of stimulus traits with instructions either to form an impression of the person described by the traits or to memorize the words. A recognition test consisting of the stimulus traits and new traits that varied in their evaluative and descriptive consistency with the stimulus traits was then administered. Recognition responses were influenced by both the evaluative and the descriptive consistency of the new traits, indicating that both evaluative and descriptive features were contained in the subjects' memory representations. The effect of descriptive consistency did not vary as a function of instructional set. However, recognition responses of subjects who were instructed to form an impression of the stimulus person were more affected by evaluative consistency of the new items than were the responses of subjects who were instructed to memorize them. Impression set subjects were therefore more likely than memory set subjects to include evaluative features in their representation and organization of the stimulus information. Consistent with this notion, subjects instructed to form an impression were somewhat more confident of their evaluative ratings of the stimulus person. © 1979.