TY - JOUR
T1 - Memorial consequences of variation in behavior perception
AU - Lassiter, G. Daniel
AU - Stone, Julie I.
AU - Rogers, Scott L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Three studies examined the effect of variation in behavior perception on memory for an observed other's behavior. In Study l, subjects were instructed to segment an actor's behavior into either fine, natural, or gross units of action. Fine-unit subjects subsequently remembered more details about the actor's behavior than did natural-unit subjects who, in turn, remembered more details than did gross-unit subjects. This result provides the first direct evidence for D. Newtson's (1973, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 28-38) assertion that fine-unit perceivers are in a higher information state with regard to an observed other than are gross-unit perceivers. In Study 2, fine-unit subjects again significantly outperformed gross-unit subjects in terms of the number of action-related details they could remember even when memory was distorted by misleading postevent information. This result indicates that the link between unitization and action memory is quite robust. Study 2 also assessed subjects' memory for the nonaction-related or peripheral details of a behavior sequence. Reversing the pattern for action-related memory, gross-unit subjects performed better on a nonaction memory test than did fine-unit subjects. Thus, Newtson's (1973) hypothesis that a finer A portion of this research was presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Philadelphia, 1983. During preparation of the manuscript, the first author was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Research Service Award MH15786-06. We thank Jeff Kudisch and Karen Schaffer for assisting with the data collection (Study 3) and Mark Alicke, Reid Hastie, Birgit Jensen, Linda Koenig, and Tim Wilson for their comments on earlier drafts. Requests for reprints should be sent to G. Daniel Lassiter, Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701.
Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1988/5
Y1 - 1988/5
N2 - Three studies examined the effect of variation in behavior perception on memory for an observed other's behavior. In Study 1, subjects were instructed to segment an actor's behavior into either fine, natural, or gross units of action. Fine-unit subjects subsequently remembered more details about the actor's behavior than did natural-unit subjects who, in turn, remembered more details than did gross-unit subjects. This result provides the first direct evidence forD. Newtson's (1973,Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,28, 28-38) assertion that fine-unit perceivers are in a higher information state with regard to an observed other than are gross-unit perceivers. In Study 2, fine-unit subjects again significantly outperformed gross-unit subjects in terms of the number of action-related details they could remember even when memory was distorted by misleading postevent information. This result indicates that the link between unitization and action memory is quite robust. Study 2 also assessed subjects' memory for the nonaction-related or peripheral details of a behavior sequence. Reversing the pattern for action-related memory, gross-unit subjects performed better on a nonaction memory test than did fine-unit subjects. Thus,Newtson's (1973) hypothesis that a finer level of behavior perception is associated with greater information gain seems to hold only for action-related information. Finally, in Study 3 some artifactual interpretations of the results of Studies 1 and 2 were assessed and deemed untenable. Implications of the present findings for person memory, eyewitness testimony, and behavior perception research are discussed.
AB - Three studies examined the effect of variation in behavior perception on memory for an observed other's behavior. In Study 1, subjects were instructed to segment an actor's behavior into either fine, natural, or gross units of action. Fine-unit subjects subsequently remembered more details about the actor's behavior than did natural-unit subjects who, in turn, remembered more details than did gross-unit subjects. This result provides the first direct evidence forD. Newtson's (1973,Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,28, 28-38) assertion that fine-unit perceivers are in a higher information state with regard to an observed other than are gross-unit perceivers. In Study 2, fine-unit subjects again significantly outperformed gross-unit subjects in terms of the number of action-related details they could remember even when memory was distorted by misleading postevent information. This result indicates that the link between unitization and action memory is quite robust. Study 2 also assessed subjects' memory for the nonaction-related or peripheral details of a behavior sequence. Reversing the pattern for action-related memory, gross-unit subjects performed better on a nonaction memory test than did fine-unit subjects. Thus,Newtson's (1973) hypothesis that a finer level of behavior perception is associated with greater information gain seems to hold only for action-related information. Finally, in Study 3 some artifactual interpretations of the results of Studies 1 and 2 were assessed and deemed untenable. Implications of the present findings for person memory, eyewitness testimony, and behavior perception research are discussed.
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U2 - 10.1016/0022-1031(88)90037-6
DO - 10.1016/0022-1031(88)90037-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001424838
VL - 24
SP - 222
EP - 239
JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
SN - 0022-1031
IS - 3
ER -