Metamemory for narrative text

In this experiment, we investigated metamemory for narrative text passages. Subjects read two stories and made memory predictions for the idea units in one and rated the importance of ideas in the other. Half of the subjects were asked to recall the story immediately after reading the passages and half were asked to recall 1 week later; half received passages with single inconsistent idea units and half received passages with corresponding consistent idea units. All subjects made confidence judgments about the accuracy of their recall. Subjects’ prediction ratings were related to recall, as shown by significant prediction accuracy quotients. Importance ratings were related to recall on the delayed test but not on the immediate test. Memory prediction ratings predicted recall better than did importance ratings. The absolute level of memory predictions did not differ with delay, but subjects did give higher confidence judgments on an immediate than on a delayed test. Subjects recalled the inconsistent idea better than the consistent idea for one story but not for the other. For both stories, subjects predicted that they would remember the inconsistent ideas better, suggesting that they have avon Restorff-type view, rather than a schema view, of memory. We conclude that subjects can predict their memory for the idea units in narrative text.     

Priming Sex-Role Stereotypic Event Schemas With Rock Music Videos: Effects on Impression Favorability,Trait Inferences,and Recall of a Subsequent Male-Female Interaction

Two experiments examined the effects of priming on appraisal and recall of a subsequent social interaction. Popular rock music videos depicting sex-role stereotypic themes were used to prime sex-role stereotypic schemas. Two commonly available sex-role stereotypic event schemas ("boy-meets-girl" and "boy-dumps-girl") were identified in rock music videos. Subjects were exposed to one of these two types of videos (or neutral videos) before watching an interaction between a man and a woman that had been constructed to be schematically consistent or inconsistent with either the boy-meets-girl or the boy-dumps-girl schema. In Experiment 1, consistent with predictions from contemporary schematic processing theories, greater and more accurate recall of the actors' behaviors was found when the interaction was schema-inconsistent with the priming videos than when it was schema-consistent. In addition, after either stereotypic priming videos, both actors were liked more when their behavior was schema-consistent than when it was schema-inconsistent. Trait judgments in Experiment 2 showed that more positive traits were also ascribed to both actors when behaviors occurring during the interaction had been made schema-consistent rather than schema-inconsistent by the priming videos. The findings argue that, by serving as priming stimuli, rock music videos can produce strong, predictable, and nonconscious cognitive effects on viewers.     

Large-scale investigation of the role of trait activation theory for understanding assessment center convergent and discriminant validity

This study used trait activation theory as a theoretical framework to conduct a large-scale test of the interactionist explanation of the convergent and discriminant validity findings obtained in assessment centers. Trait activation theory specifies the conditions in which cross-situationally consistent and inconsistent candidate performances are likely to occur. Results obtained by aggregating correlations across 30 multitrait-multimethod matrices supported the propositions of trait activation theory, shedding a more positive light on the construct validity puzzle in assessment centers. Overall, convergence among assessment center ratings was better between exercises that provided an opportunity to observe behavior related to the same trait, and discrimination among ratings within exercises was generally better for dimensions that were not expressions of the same underlying traits. Implications for assessment center research and practice are discussed.     

Remembering and knowing personality traits: figure/ground asymmetries in person-related retrieval experience

In two experiments, the effect of category salience on retrieval experience was investigated. In Experiment 1, participants rated typicality or concreteness of personality traits that differed in stereotype reference (i.e., consistent, inconsistent, and neutral in relation to the age stereotype). More remember judgments were given for consistent and inconsistent traits in contrast to neutral traits, thereby indicating a figure/ground asymmetry. In Experiment 2, neutral traits were excluded and a classical figure/ground phenomenon was demonstrated for the retrieval experience of traits (i.e., reversibility of an ambiguous figure after typicality and untypicality ratings). Altogether, the results suggest that metacognitive trait representations depend on principles of figure/ground asymmetries rather than on functional principles of social information processing.     

Affect intensity and the appraisal of emotion

The present study investigated the association between a personality trait known as affect intensity and the perceived qualities of emotions. Subjects completed the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM), and they rated the phenomenological qualities and causal dimensions of previous emotional experiences involving happiness, pride, anxiety, and hate. The results showed that high and low scorers on the AIM reported different perceptions of certain qualities of the emotional event, independent of the emotion's valence; subjects with high scores on the AIM rated their emotions as higher in intensity, frequency, and vividness of recall. In contrast, further analyses revealed little relation between AIM scores and causal dimension ratings of the emotions. However, within-subject analyses indicated that the emotions did differ in their perceived causes, thus supporting predictions from Weiner's attributional model of emotion. The results are discussed in terms of the need for a complex approach to the study of emotion which incorporates intersubject and intrasubject differences.     

Not all happy people are lazy or stupid: Evidence of systematic processing in happy moods

Two experiments investigated the effects of mood on the use of global trait information in impression formation tasks. Participants in both experiments formed an impression of a target based on traits and a series of behaviors that were both consistent and inconsistent with the traits. In Experiment 1, participants in happy moods, relative to those in unhappy moods, made impression judgments that reflected the evaluative implications of the trait information to a greater extent than the behaviors, regardless of the order in which they received the information. In Experiment 2, both happy and sad participants engaged in systematic processing, as reflected by the recall data, but only happy participants’ recall of target information was significantly biased by the global trait information they received. These findings are consistent with the affect-as-information model in which affective cues influence the extent to which individuals rely on general knowledge and, importantly, are inconsistent with models that posit that happiness results in reduced motivation or ability to process information carefully.     

Asymmetry in judgments of personality: others are less differentiated than the self

Previous evidence suggests that judges rely more heavily on implicit personality theories when they rate relatively unfamiliar others. One further implication of this evidence is that correlations among traits should be stronger in other ratings than in self-ratings, particularly when (a) judges lack trait relevant information and/or (b) motivational accuracy is low. We tested these predictions by comparing self- versus other ratings on the Big Five in two studies. Study 1 used previously published data to demonstrate clear self/peer differences in the average relations between Big Five dimensions (excluding Extraversion). Study 2 was based on self- versus other ratings in 12 samples. Overall, the intercorrelations among Big Five traits (excluding Extraversion) tended to be significantly stronger in peer ratings than in self-ratings. The most consistent effect involved the relation between Neuroticism and Agreeableness (overall r=-.43 and -.29 in the peer ratings and self-ratings, respectively). In addition, as expected, the degree of relation among traits varied depending upon the type of target being rated (i.e., spouse vs. dating partner vs. friend vs. stranger). Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Test anxiety and breadth of encoding experiences in free recall

Subjects made three ratings for each of 30 words, then had an unannounced immediate free recall test and a second test after 1 week. There was no evidence to indicate significantly better retention on either test when the dimensions rated were unrelated as opposed to related. Subjects low on test anxiety performed better overall than subjects who scored high on either the emotionality or worry components of test anxiety. On the delayed test, the test anxiety effect was apparent only when study ratings involved unrelated dimensions (i.e., broad encoding). This interaction is consistent with two conclusions. First, rating related dimensions led to narrow encodings, thus hindering low-anxiety subjects who normally encode broadly. Second, even explicit ratings of unrelated dimensions did not induce high-anxiety subjects to encode more broadly. That the high-anxiety deficit was not overcome even with explicit orienting tasks may indicate inflexibility in deploying memory strategies.     

Women's theories of menstruation and biases in recall of menstrual symptoms

Previous research is consistent with the proposition that people use implicit theories of personal stability or change in remembering the attributes they possessed in the past. However, there has been little systematic investigation of the relation between these implicit theories and memory biases. In this study, the relation between women's theories of menstrual distress and their recollections of physical and affective symptoms was examined. Ss completed daily questionnaires in which they evaluated themselves on several physical and affective symptoms. Later, some Ss were asked to recall the ratings they had made on a day when they were menstruating; others recalled a day when they were not menstruating. At the time of recall, all Ss were in the intermenstrual phase. Finally, Ss completed a measure designed to assess their theories of how they are typically affected by menstruation. The recollections of Ss who recalled the menstrual state were biased so as to be consistent with their theories of menstrual distress: The more a woman believed in the phenomenon of menstrual distress, the more she exaggerated, in recall, the negativity of her symptoms during her last period. The recollections of women asked to recall the intermenstrual state were unrelated to their theories of menstruation. Furthermore, consistent with previous research, the daily questionnaire ratings revealed that physical symptoms varied with menstrual cycle phase, whereas affective symptoms did not. Finally, comparisons between subjects' theories and daily ratings revealed that, on average, women exaggerate the degree to which they experience changes during menstruation.     

Personality Correlates of Assessment Center Consensus Competency Ratings: Evidence from Russia

Controversy has revolved around whether assessment center ratings have construct validity to measure intended dimensions of managerial performance. In contrast to much recent research on the internal structure of assessment center ratings, the present studies investigated the relationship of final competency ratings derived by consensus discussion with external questionnaire measures of personality characteristics. Expanding on previous studies showing correlations of dimension scores in relation to individual trait measures, this study investigated the relationship of complex competencies with both single personality traits and with composites of personality traits. Evidence from two samples of managers in Russia shows that final competency ratings are related to predicted composites of personality factors more consistently than to single factors. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that assessment center ratings derived by consensus discussion show construct validity in relationship with predicted composites of personality characteristics.     

The cognitive representation of persons and groups and its effect on recall and recognition memory

A conceptualization of the manner in which trait and behavioral information is organized in memory is proposed and applied in predicting both the recall and recognition of information about persons and groups. Three information presentation conditions were considered: (1) Subjects are told to form an impression of a target (person or group) on the basis of the target's behaviors, and are given a trait-based concept of what the target is like before learning about these behaviors. (2) Subjects are told to form an impression of the target, but a general traitbased concept of the target is not induced until after they learn about the target's behaviors. (3) Subjects receive information about the target's behaviors with instructions to remember the information, and only subsequently are told to form an impression and are given more general information about the target's traits. The proposed model accounted for between-condition differences in both the recall and recognition of behaviors that were consistent and inconsistent with a general trait-based concept of the target, and for contingencies of these differences on whether the target was a single person or a group.     

Sex stereotypes and implicit personality theory. II. A trait-inference approach to the assessment of sex stereotypes

Two experiments were conducted to assess sex stereotypes using the trait-inference method originated by Asch (1946). In both, subjects were asked to make inferences about the personality of a male or a female stimulus target who was introduced by a brief list of traits. In Experiment 1 this trait list described the target as either good or bad in intellectual activities and as either warm or cold while in Experiment 2 the introductory list comprised traits which are relatively neutral in terms of evaluation. Subjects rated the stimulus persons on adjective scales selected to reflect dimensions of personality perception reported in previous research. In both studies, male targets were rated significantly higher than females in terms of the Intellectual Desirability dimension. In addition, female targets tended to be rated higher on Communion in Experiment 1 (p<.06), and lower than males on Potency in Experiment 2 (p<.07). No differences as a function of stimulus sex were obtained for Social Desirability, Activity, and Agency. The results suggest that the dimension of implicit personality theory most closely associated with perceived sex differences is a combination of Intellectual Desirability and Potency. The male end of this dimension is relatively well defined by traits which convey a hard-headed, rational approach to problem solving. The female end is much less elaborated and consists of traits reflecting soft-heartedness.     

Effects of Three Conditions of Administration on Bem Sex Role Inventory Scores

In order to assess the validity of the technique employed in selecting items for the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) 58 male and 62 female undergraduates took the BSRI under three different sets of instructions. Both males and females were able to produce extremely masculine and extremely feminine BSRI profiles which differed (p < .01) from their own BSRI profiles. The results support Bem's (1974) assertion that the BSRI Masculinity and Femininity scales are comprised of items which are consistent with widely held sex-role sterotypes.     

Masculine Instrumentality and Feminine Expressiveness: Their Relationships with Sex Role Attitudes and Behaviors

Data from the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) Masculinity and Femininity scales have led to the hypothesis that androgynous individuals are more "behaviorally flexible" than others, manifesting both masculine and feminine role behaviors. Sex-role androgyny is also said to have other beneficial consequences such as high self esteem. The content of these instruments, however, is largely confined to socially desirable instrumental (masculine) and expressive (feminine) personality traits. A review of the literature indicates that these abstract trait dimensions have only minimal relationships with sex-role attitudes and sex-role behaviors not tapping instrumentality and expressiveness, and provide little support for the general behavioral flexibility hypothesis. Although PAQ and BSRI findings cannot be generalized to sex-role behaviors in general, the literature suggests that instrumentality and expressiveness per se have important implications. Appreciation of their contributions may be advanced more rapidly if these trait dimensions are disentangled from global concepts of sex-roles or masculinity, femininity, and androgyny.     

Low accuracy in judgments of others' psychological well-being as seen from a phenomenological perspective

The generally low degree of agreement between self-ratings on personality traits and ratings by others may be interpreted from the viewpoint that self-reports reflect people's experience of themselves but not necessarily their behaviors. A detailed analysis of self and other ratings on subjective well-being as a central dimension of human experience is consistent with this phenomenological view. Ratings of well-being were not significantly correlated with rated behaviors either in self-ratings or in ratings by others. Screening subjects in terms of avowed consistency and observability on a trait did not improve self-other agreement for well-being, nor did it replicate the individual trait effects reported by Kenrick and Stringfield (1980). Judgments by others were found to have poor interjudge reliability and to reflect biases associated with projection of own well-being and a halo effect organized around the subject's perceived friendliness or likability. It was demonstrated that pooling the judgments of several observers should not and does not lead to accurate prediction of the phenomenal personality, and that accuracy may generally depend on the level of self-disclosure.