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Processing information within implicit personality theory
Author(s) -
Harris P. L.,
Hampson S. E.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1980.tb00349.x
Subject(s) - trait , psychology , big five personality traits , personality , cognitive psychology , trait theory , social psychology , computer science , programming language
Consistent with the claim that traits form an organized network in semantic memory, Expt 1 showed that subjects make faster inferences from a given trait to strongly correlated probe traits. Thus, subjects decide more quickly whether a friendly person is generous than whether he is careful. In Expt 2, subjects made inferences to probe traits on the basis of either one or two given traits. Speed and confidence were both assessed. Surprisingly, subjects were as confident and as fast in making inferences from two traits as they were in making inferences from one trait. The results indicate that inferences from two traits need not be made by deriving successive estimates from each given trait and subsequently integrating those estimates. It is argued instead that decisions in implicit personality theory can be based on the most rapidly completed path between a given trait and a probe trait within a network of spreading activation (Collins & Loftus, 1975). The implication of these findings for weighted averaging models of trait integration is discussed.