The effects of motivation on social information processing

[摘要] Studies examining processing of information which is consistent and inconsistent with an expectancy have not been able to conclusively determine which of these types of items has a memory advantage. Recent research indicates that one important determinant of this may be attention allocation to the different types of items. For example, a recent model of impression formation suggests that people process information along a continuum from using only a category label to using only individual attributes. It is proposed that motivational factors can influence attention allocation and thus memory for and use of consistent and inconsistent information. Two different communication sets were compared to assess their effects on information processing. It was hypothesized that whereas accountability would correspond with an advantage for inconsistent information, transmission tuning would correspond with an advantage for consistent information. Two experiments failed to confirm these hypotheses. There are several possible explanations for results.

[发布机构] Rice University

[效力级别] Social psychology