Language Extension in Social Cognition: Personality Impression Judgment as a Cognitive Matching Operation

Most current research in personality impression formation has concentrated on the structural properties of descriptive language removed from specific, naturalistic judgment contexts. In contrast, this study concerns the referential aspects of descriptive language: the process of tying a particular descriptor to a particular experience of a person. It is proposed that this process of verbal meaning extension, especially as manifested in most psychological rating tasks, involves a cognitive matching operation wherein a descriptor is evaluated against the properties of an experimental representation extant in memory. This formulation differs from other current formulations in that it emphasizes the "stimulus-value" of a target as well as the implicit structural properties of a descriptive lexicon. Evidence is presented demonstrating that response latencies for descriptor ratings of targets presented in a realistic videotape vary as a function of independent judgments of the applicability of items. It is further demonstrated that manipulations of encoding strategy, which are designed to affect the representation of a target held in memory, impact this matching operation in a predictable fashion. The theoretical and methodological implications of these results are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Trierweiler, Steven

• Psychology, Social

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8409842

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69631