Robert S. Wyer

Affect and Information Processing

Publisher Summary It is noted that the most active area of research and theory of social information processing that emerged in the past two decades concerns the cognitive determinants and consequences of affect and emotion. This chapter illustrates development of conceptualization that incorporates the implications of diverse phenomenas such as creativity, persuasive messages, impression formation, stereotyping, self-evaluations, and political judgment along with cognitive processes that underlie them. The chapter specifies the possible determinants and consequences of the affect that individuals experience in both laboratory and daily life situations. The chapter considers one basic assumption of conceptualization that essentially distinguishes it from other formulations of affect and cognition. Specifically, it states that although affective reactions can be responses to previously acquired concepts and knowledge that are activated in memory and although one can have concepts about their own and others reactions, but affect per se is not itself part of the cognitive system. This assumption places restrictions on the ways that affect can influence information processing.

The Role of Information Retrieval and Conditional Inference Processes in Belief Formation and Change

Publisher Summary The chapter focuses on the role of conditional inference processes (for example, inferences concerning the validity of one proposition given the validity or invalidity of others) in the acquisition and the change of beliefs. These processes are one of several types of reasoning that may underlie social judgments. However, the conditions under which they are likely to occur are sufficiently diverse and will not cause a major restriction on the considerations. The chapter provides an intuitive feel for the sort of inference process postulated to underlie judgments, and some evidence for a formal descriptive model of this process. The focus is on a consideration of several factors that affect the availability and use of information to make inferences of the sort to which this model is relevant. Finally, applications of the proposed conceptualization to inferences in several content domains are considered. The chapter discusses determinants of information accessibility wherein plausibility and strength of implications, effects of inconsistency, and general effects of thought on reported beliefs are also discussed.

The cognitive organization of product information: Effects of attribute category set size on information recall

This research investigates the way product information is organized in memory. Two types of organization are postulated. In the first, consumers mentally categorize each piece of information in terms of the attribute it exemplifies. In the second, they determine the favorableness of each information item independently of the attribute to which it pertains and organize these items around a more general evaluative concept of the product. Subjects in three experiments read items of information about a stereo color television with instructions either to form an overall evaluation of it or to make more specific judgments of its sound quality and picture quality. Recall data suggested that subjects with an attributejudgment objective organized the information in memory according to the attribute to which it pertained. Subjects with an overall-evaluation objective also formed attribute-specific representations. In addition, however, they formed a more general, evaluation-based representation of the product as a whole. These findings were generally consistent with the dual representation model of impression formation proposed by Wyer and Srull (1989) . We discuss implications of these results for product impression formation and judgment.

Global and Local Processing: A Clarification and Integration

Global and local information processing can influ-ence judgments and decisions in almost every areaof daily life experience. The research summarized byForster and Dannenberg (this issue) is therefore im-¨portant in documenting both the diverse implicationsof this processing and the cognitive and motivationalfactors that affect it. The indication that stimulatingindividuals to employ global or detailed criteria as abasis for judgments in one domain can influence theway in which information is processed in other, quiteunrelated situations is particularly provocative.The scope and penetration of Forster and Dannen-¨berg’sreviewandanalysisarecertainlyimpressive,anditisdifficulttofindseriousfaultwiththeirconclusions.The vast amount of evidence they compile concerningthe determinants and consequences of global versuslocal (piecemeal) processing phenomena (to which thefirst author has made a major contribution) is trulyremarkable, and their discussion of more general fac-tors that potentially bind the phenomena together isprovocative. Nevertheless, the cognitive and motiva-tional underpinnings of the phenomena could standsome further elaboration. Moreover, although the situ-ational determinants of global and local processing areconsidered indetail,the factorsthatgive risetochronicindividual differences in this processing may also beworth considering.Following Smith (1990, 1994), Forster and Dan-¨nenberg distinguish between

The role of logical and nonlogical factors in making inferences about category membership

Abstract Three postulates are proposed concerning the manner in which persons infer the validity of propositions that do not necessarily follow logically from the information available. These postulates assume that subjects first attempt to identify the propositions that are most and least likely to follow from the information given. They then use their beliefs in these propositions as anchors, relative to which the validity of other propositions is evaluated on the basis of both logical and nonlogical criteria. Two experiments are reported in which these postulates are used successfully to diagnose the logical and nonlogical factors that underlie inferences based upon both single statements and sets of syllogistically related propositions. The implications of the proposed postulates for existing formulations of social inference and cognitive organization are discussed.