Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of stimulus cues involved in the categorization of people on person memory and impression ratings. We conducted two experiments based on a paradigm developed by Taylor et al., (1978). In experiment 1, the experimenter showed the subjects a group discussion by way of a tape-recorder and slides, so that the subjects were exposed to both the voices and faces of the speakers. The gender of the speakers and the degree of masculinity-femininity in speech content were independently manipulated. In Experiment 2, the experimenter presented the subjects a group discussion, not with their voices or faces, with the gender labels of the speakers, thus gender cues were reduced. The results show that the effects on person memory did not change across these two experiments, but that those on impression ratings were clearly varied. Impressions of the speakers were determined depending on the masculinity-femininity of speech content. We discuss our findings in terms of independence of two tasks, the pervasiveness of accentuation effects caused by gender of the speakers, and automatic/controlled processes.
