Ciência-IUL
Publications
Publication Detailed Description
Journal Title
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Year (definitive publication)
2014
Language
English
Country
United States of America
More Information
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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.
Acknowledgements
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Keywords
Person memory,Impression formation,Situated cognition,Physical context,Distributed memory
Fields of Science and Technology Classification
- Psychology - Social Sciences
Funding Records
Funding Reference | Funding Entity |
---|---|
PEst-OE/PSI/UI3125/2013 | Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia |