Person Memory

Cognitive psychologists mainly use the associative network (when information stored in our memory are categorised by associative links such as traits, beliefs and behaviours) model of memory.

• Not all links are as strong as each other
• They are strengthened by cognitive rehearsal and when there are numerous links to a specific idea
• Each link assists in the activation of the other links through association increasing its retrieval

Note: long-term memory (the majority of information stored that can be accessed and brought to your conscious) and short-term memory (small amounts of information occupied by your attention at the present time).

The majority of person-memory contains information about traits

• These traits are based on inferences made from the behaviour and situations of individuals
• These inferences revolve around making causal attributions to behaviour
• This information is stored into to categories of socially desirable (e.g. friendly) and competence (e.g. intelligent)

When making judgements about others, people tend to rely on incoming information based on schemas to produce impressions. They are much less likely to use the information they have stored to make impressions and are influenced by the goals and purposes of the interaction. This suggest that the more psychologically and emotionally committed to the interaction an individual is, the greater amount and strength of the associative links there will be.