Abstract
An extension of the DRM paradigm was used to study the impact of central traits (Asch, 1946) in impression formation. Traits corresponding to the four clusters of the implicit theory of personality—intellectual, positive and negative; and social, positive and negative (Rosenberg et al., 1968)—were used to develop lists containing several traits of one cluster and one central trait prototypical of the opposite cluster. Participants engaging in impression formation relative to participants engaging in memorization not only produced higher levels of false memories corresponding to the same cluster of the list traits but, under response time pressure at retrieval, also produced more false memories of the cluster corresponding to the central trait. We argue that the importance of central traits stems from their ability to activate their corresponding semantic space within a specialized associative memory structure underlying the implicit theory of personality.
Highlights
As we use our memories and knowledge to navigate the world, our impressions of others’ personalities are important
Following the idea that the implicit theory of personality can be conceived as an associative memory structure, we have shown that presenting personality traits that load more heavily on a given positive or negative cluster of a personality dimension leads to false recognition of non-presented personality traits that occupy the central positions in the cluster of those presented traits (GarciaMarques et al, 2010)
If we replicate Asch (1946)’s original results (Experiments 1A and 1B) and if we find evidence of the centrality effect in a DRM like memory paradigm (Experiments 2 and 3), we would be gathering evidence supporting our hypothesis that centrality effects in impression formation can be explained by the representation of the implicit theory of personality in memory
Summary
As we use our memories and knowledge to navigate the world, our impressions of others’ personalities are important. The knowledge structure underlying impressions of personality has been dubbed implicit theory of personality (Bruner and Tagiuri, 1954). Garcia-Marques et al (2010) proposed that the implicit theory of personality corresponds to a specialized associative memory structure. Garcia-Marques and colleagues used an adapted version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger and McDermott, 1995) to provide evidence for a memory structure underlying impressions of personality that shares the same flexible advantages of other associative memory structures and, as a consequence, is prone to the same performance costs, such as the occurrence of specific and predictable patterns of impression formation false memories. We argue that some of the patterns of impression formation false memories form the basis of classical impression formation effects such as the centrality effect (Asch, 1946)
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