Role of sentence context in the encoding of trait descriptors

120 university students read a set of 6 acquisition sentences consisting of a name, a trait adjective, and a descriptive elaboration that stressed 1 of 2 alternative senses of the trait. Ss subsequently rated the likelihood of test statements that were either consistent with, inconsistent with, or u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 1980-07, Vol.39 (1), p.59-68
Main Author: Woll, Stanley B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adjectives
Cognitive Processes
Contextual Associations
Human
Human Information Storage
Impression Formation
Personality Traits
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Summary:120 university students read a set of 6 acquisition sentences consisting of a name, a trait adjective, and a descriptive elaboration that stressed 1 of 2 alternative senses of the trait. Ss subsequently rated the likelihood of test statements that were either consistent with, inconsistent with, or unrelated to their original encodings. Results show significantly higher ratings for consistent than for inconsistent or unrelated sentences, suggesting that Ss had in fact encoded specific senses of the trait descriptors. The presence of the original trait adjective at recognition produced inflated ratings for inconsistent sentences and lowered ratings for unrelated sentences, suggesting that the salience of the overall dictionary meaning of these descriptors may have overridden Ss' context-specific encodings in this condition. The importance of providing a sentence context rather than unstructured trait lists in studies of trait meaning is discussed. (56 ref)
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.39.1.59