1989 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 155-162
Wyer and Gordon (1982) found that their impression group recalled more behaviors but didn't recall more trait adjectives than their memory group and thought that persons could organize behaviors but couldn't organize traits. However, the author showed that persons might organize traits because the clustering score of trait adjectives his impression group recalled was higher than his memory group, though trait adjectives the impression group recalled was fewer. He suggested that researchers should use not only the number of recalled items but category clustering scores as measures of cognitive organization. Moreover, it was discussed that the inconsistency between behaviors and traits, Wyer and Gordon found, might not be caused by the difference in organization processing but by the difference in visual complexity. Because behaviors have more visual elements than trait adjectives, the subjects could recall them more correctly, using them as cues, only if they remember the meanings roughly. The impression group, who tends to store only meanings, will have the disadvantage of recalling trait adjectives. A post hoc analysis proved the hypothesis.
