A printing procedure (e.g., Klein, Loftus, Trafton, & Fuhrman, 1992) w
as used to test a hierarchical model of self-knowledge. According to t
his model, people simultaneously hold multiple representations of them
selves that differ both in their context specificity and in the type o
f knowledge of which they consist. Specifically, context-independent s
elf-knowledge is assumed to be represented abstractly without referenc
e to any particular behaviors, whereas the representation of contest-d
ependent self-knowledge includes knowledge of one's behavior in specif
ic situations. Our results support a hierarchical model: Subjects acce
ssed abstract knowledge when describing their context-independent pers
onality characteristics, but accessed behavioral episodes when describ
ing themselves in a specific context. Possible implications of this re
search are discussed, as is the relation of a hierarchical model of se
lf-knowledge to a mixed model of self-knowledge (e.g., Klein & Loftus,
1993b).