Encoding and Retrieval Effects of General Person Characterizations on Memory for Incongruent and Congruent Information

Abstract

We hypothesized that general person characterizations exert different effects on the recall of characterization-relevant information, depending on whether the information is encountered before or after exposure to the characterization. We predicted that when the general characterizations are presented prior to exposure to information about specific incidents, more characterization-incongruent than characterization-congruent incidents would be recalled; we also predicted that when the characterizations are presented after exposure to specific information, more characterization-congruent than characterization-incongruent incidents would be recalled. Subjects heard an audiotape of a list of positive and negative events, some characterization-relevant (social encounters) and some characterization-irrelevant (fortuitous events), in the life of a fellow college student either before or after exposure to written information that characterized that person in either a generally positive or negative way. Subjects' recall of characterization relevant information supported both of the above hypotheses; subjects' recall of the characterization-irrelevant but affectively related events was not affected by the general characterizations. These results were discussed in terms of the differential effects of person impressions on encoding and retrieval processes.