INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN PERSON MEMORY - SELF-MONITORING AND THE RECALL OF CONSISTENT AND INCONSISTENT BEHAVIOR

Individuals differ in the extent to which they monitor and control the ir behaviors in social situations High (relative to low) self-monitors are especially concerned with conveying a positive impression. Previo us research has demonstrated that high self-monitors remember more of the central/action-related derails of an observed event than do low se lf-monitors. The present research extends this work by showing that no t all action-related information is especially well remembered by high self-monitors. Employing a paradigm used in studies of person memory, we found that high (relative to low) self-monitors demonstrated enhan ced recall for the expectancy-inconsistent, but not the expectancy-con sistent behaviors of an observed other Additional data indicated that higher self-monitoring tendencies were also associated with greater el aboration of the observed other and his behavior and that this greater elaboration was, in turn, partly responsible for high self-monitors' better memory for inconsistent behaviors. We conclude that high self-m onitors are particularly motivated to seek out and retain those behavi ors of others that provide potentially new information about what thos e individuals are like and how they might react in future situations.