The role of imagery in memory for descriptions of behavioral episodes and in impressions based on those episodes

Cheri Wilcox Sparks, Purdue University

Abstract

Two studies investigated the role of mental imagery in recall of a target's behaviors. The studies also explored whether there was a direct effect of imagery or an indirect effect (mediated through recall) on impressions of the target. An overriding question of this research was whether three imagery variables (encoding strategy, concreteness of information, and ability to form vivid images) would have additive or interactive effects on recall and impressions. Encoding strategy was manipulated by asking participants in both studies, to either make trait inferences, comprehend information, or form images of the behaviors described to them. In both studies the concreteness of the descriptions presented to participants was a within-subject manipulation. In Study 1, participants read either lists of concrete positive descriptions and abstract negative descriptions or of concrete negative and abstract positive descriptions of a target. In Study 2, participants read concrete descriptions of behaviors whose meanings were each qualified by abstract information. In Study 1, the participants who read the concrete positive lists remembered more concrete descriptions and had more positive impressions of the target than those who read the concrete negative lists. Analyses confirmed that there was both a direct and indirect effect of concreteness on impressions. The concreteness effects on recall and impressions were significant only in the comprehend encoding task condition. In Study 2, participants recalled more concrete than abstract information overall, but were more influenced by the abstract information that provided the evaluative meaning of the concrete behaviors than by the concrete characteristics of the behaviors. The possible effect on memory and impressions of an ability to form vivid imagery was also examined in both studies. All the results are discussed and interpreted from an imagery perspective. Their implications for insights into the previous findings in the social vividness literature are described.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Carlston, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Social psychology|Psychology|Experiments|Cognitive therapy

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