The influence of processing goals in a multitarget multidomain context: the quest for memory organization

Abstract

The person memory field has been witnessing a twofold diversification of research problems. First in what concerns the type and amount of experimental stimuli, and second in the introduction of new processing goals. Extending the experiments of Hamilton and colleagues (Hamilton, Katz & Leirer, 1979) and of Devine and colleagues (Sedidikes, Devine & Furnham, 1991) this research presents subjects with multitarget and multidomain information introducing new motivated encoding strategies and diverse information formats. Subjects were tested under conditions where they were to either to memorize, to form an impression, to choose one, or to anticipate an interaction with five different targets. The available information about a target concerns several attribute domains (i.e. major, trait, hobby, game and part time job). The dependent variables were, among others, free and cued recall and ARC organization measures. The pattern of results is complex. The free recall results replicated the common findings in the literature. Choice processing goal, introduced for the first time in this experiment, showed a free recall level comparable to Memory. This result is in accordance to the use of choice heuristics. The cued recall results showed that Memory subjects had a higher gain that the other processing goals as predicted by the retrieval inhibition phenomena. Organization results were inconclusive.