Abstract
Person memory has been mainly investigated as an individual process. In contrast, we argue that person memory results from the interplay between the individual and the context. Thus, the way people acquire and retrieve social information is constrained by the context in which these processes take place. This argument was explored in three experiments. In an impression formation paradigm, we manipulated the meaningfulness of contextual information (objects) for a stereotypical target. Results showed that meaningful contextual information presented during the encoding of behavioral information improved memory for the behavioral information but also for the contextual information (Experiment 1–2); that this memory advantage only occurs when the encoding goal requires some degree of cognitive organization (Experiment 2); and finally, that meaningful contextual information also enhances memory when presented at retrieval (Experiment 3). These results are consistent with a situated cognition perspective according to which the context where cognitive activities take place can be used to facilitate cognitive activity. We discuss the implications of these results for the standard person memory view and identify new routes for future research.
Highlights
N [W]hen entities and events occur in their expected situations, processing is relatively easy and effective. (Barsalou, 2008, p. 242)
Inspired by different lines of research showing the impact of contextual information on cognition (e.g., Barrett & Kensinger, 2010; Chaigneu et al, 2010), we argued that the processes involved in encoding and retrieving information about social targets should be constrained by the physical context in which these processes take place
How is person memory situated? Our results showed that the encoding and retrieval of social information is affected by the presence of target-relevant physical contextual information
Summary
N [W]hen entities and events occur in their expected situations, processing is relatively easy and effective. (Barsalou, 2008, p. 242). Person Memory: From individual traits to complex behaviors Solomon Asch’s seminal work (1946) placed the study of impression formation in the spotlight and shaped the path of what would become ‘person memory’ research (Hastie & Carlston, 1980). Factors like participants’ processing goals (Hamilton, Katz, & Leirer, 1980; Garcia-Marques & Hamilton, 1996), their cognitive resources at encoding (e.g., Bargh & Thein, 1985; Macrae, Hewstone, & Griffiths, 1993; Sherman & Hamilton, 1994; Srull, 1981; Srull, Lichtenstein, & Rothbart, 1985) and at retrieval (Garcia-Marques, Hamilton, & Maddox, 2002), or the (mis)match between the targets’ traits and stereotype-based expectancies and its behaviors (e.g., Bodenhausen, 1988; Crawford & Skowronski, 1998; Hastie & kumar, 1979; Wyer & Srull 1989), are some of the most common factors featuring in explanations for the amount and type of information that can be retrieved about the target. Like most cognitive activities, person memory is often established in concrete physical and social contexts that can influence our ability to encode and retrieve information about other people
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