Situation-specific effects in person memory

Abstract

Given that most person memory models have concentrated on trait expectancies, and have ignored situational ones, this article attempts to show that new predictions can arise from an explicit focus on the situation. Participants were led to believe that a target person was kind or unkind either at work or at home. They were subsequently presented with congruent and incongruent behavioral items ostensibly performed by the target person in each of these settings. Consistent with the notion that people form situation-specific expectancies, incongruent behaviors were better recalled than congruent ones, but only if they pertained to the situation specified in the expectancy manipulation; an incongruity effect was not obtained for behaviors performed in the unspecified situation. These data suggest that situation-specific expectancies should be addressed in future person memory models.