Multiple Behavior Descriptions Affect the Acquisitions of STI and STT

Abstract

Four studies pursued the idea that spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) involve the formation of both inferential knowledge and associative knowledge while spontaneous trait transferences (STTs) involve only the formation of associative knowledge. These studies varied the type and amount of behavioral information from which perceivers could extract trait information. Experiments 1a and 1b used a modified savings-in-relearning paradigm and demonstrated that repeated presentations of an individual and a behavior description increased the strength of association between the target and implied trait, and this effect did not depend on whether the repeated presentations involved redundant information or new information. In comparison, Experiments 2a and 2b used a trait ratings dependent variable and demonstrated that the effects of repetition were stronger for STI, but not STT, when the added information differed from information that was previously encountered, but not when it was redundant with the previously encountered information.

Keywords

Spontaneous trait transference spontaneous trait inference impression formation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Brown

R. D.

Bassili

J. N.

(2002) Spontaneous trait associations and the case of the superstitious banana. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 38: 87–92. doi:10.1006/jesp.2001.1486.

Carlston, D. E., & Mae, L. (2003). The accidental tourist: Capturing incidental (versus intentional) impressions. In G. V. Bodenhausen & A. J. Lambert (Eds.), Foundations of social cognition: A festschrift in honor of Robert S. Wyer, Jr. (pp. 97–130). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.

Carlston

D. E.

Skowronski

J. J.

(1994) Savings in the relearning of trait information as evidence for spontaneous inference generation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66: 840–856. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.5.840.

Carlston

D. E.

Skowronski

J. J.

(2005) Linking versus thinking: Evidence for the different associative and attributional bases of spontaneous trait transference and spontaneous trait inference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89: 884–898. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.884.

Carlston

D. E.

Skowronski

J. J.

Sparks

(1995) Savings in relearning: II. On the formation of behavior-based trait associations and inferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69: 420–436. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.3.429.

Crawford

M. T.

Skowronski

J. J.

Stiff

(2007) Limiting the spread of spontaneous trait transference. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43: 466–472. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.04.003.

Crawford

M. T.

Skowronski

J. J.

Stiff

Leonards

(2008) Seeing, but not thinking: Limiting the spread of spontaneous trait transference II. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44: 840–847. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2007.08.001.

Crawford

M. T.

Skowronski

J. J.

Stiff

Scherer

(2007) Interfering with inferential, but not associative, processes underlying spontaneous trait inference. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 33: 677–690. doi:10.1177/0146167206298567.

Goren

Todorov

(2009) Two faces are better than one: Eliminating false trait associations with faces. Social Cognition 27: 222–248. doi:10.1521/soco.2009.27.2.222.

10.

Higgins

E. T.

(1996) Knowledge activation: Accessibility, applicability, and salience. In: Higgins

E. T.

Kruglanski

A. W.

(eds) Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles, New York, NY: Guilford Press, pp. 133–168.

11.

MacLeod

C. M.

(1988) Forgotten but not gone: Savings for pictures and words in long-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 14: 195–212. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.14.2.195.

12.

Mae

McMorris

L. E.

Hendry

J. L.

(2004) Spontaneous trait transference from dogs to owners. Anthrozoos 17: 225–243. doi:10.2752/089279304785643249.

13.

Orghian

Garcia-Marques

Uleman

J. S.

Heinke

(2015) A connectionist model of spontaneous trait inference and spontaneous trait transference: Do they have the same underlying processes? Social Cognition 33: 20–66. doi:10.1521/soco.2015.33.1.20.

14.

Skowronski

J. J.

Carlston

D. E.

(1987) Social judgment and social memory: The role of cue diagnosticity in negativity, positivity, and extremity biases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52: 689–699. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.4.689.

15.

Skowronski

J. J.

Carlston

D. E.

Hartnett

J. L.

(2008) Spontaneous impressions derived from observations of behavior: What a long, strange trip it’s been (and it’s not over yet). In: Ambady

Skowronski

J. J.

(eds) First impressions, New York, NY: Guilford Press, pp. 313–333.

16.

Skowronski

J. J.

Carlston

D. E.

Mae

Crawford

M. T.

(1998) Spontaneous trait transference: Communicators take on the qualities they describe in others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74: 837–848. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.4.837.

17.

Sloman

S. A.

(1996) The empirical case for two systems of reasoning. Psychological Bulletin 119: 3–22. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.119.1.3.

18.

Smith

E. R.

DeCoster

(2000) Dual-process models in social and cognitive psychology: Conceptual integration and links to underlying memory systems. Personality and Social Psychology Review 4: 108–131. doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0402_01.

19.

Uleman

J. S.

(2009) Automatic (spontaneous) propositional and associative learning of first impressions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32: 227–228. doi:10.1017/S0140525X09001162.

20.

Uleman

J. S.

Newman

L. S.

Moskowitz

G. B.

(1996) People as flexible interpreters: Evidence and issues from spontaneous trait inferences. In: Zanna

M. P.

(ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology, San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 211–279.

21.

Uleman

J. S.

Rim

Saribay

Kressel

L. M.

(2012) Controversies, questions, and prospects for spontaneous social inferences. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 6: 657–673. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00452.x.

22.

Uleman

J. S.

Saribay

S. A.

Gonzalez

(2008) Spontaneous inferences, implicit impressions, and implicit theories. Annual Review of Psychology 59: 329–360. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093707.

23.

Wells

B. M.

Skowronski

J. J.

Crawford

M. T.

Scherer

C. R.

Carlston

D. E.

(2011) Inference making and linking both require thinking: Spontaneous trait inference and spontaneous trait transference both rely on working memory capacity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47: 1116–1126. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.013.

24.

Winter

Uleman

J. S.

(1984) When are social judgments made? Evidence for the spontaneousness of trait inferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 47: 237–252. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.47.2.237.

25.

Yzerbyt

V. Y.

Dardenne

Leyens

J.-P.

(1998) Social judgeability concerns in impression formation. In: Yzerbyt

V. Y.

Lories

Dardenne

(eds) Metacognition: Cognitive and social dimensions, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 126–156.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.04 MB