FACILITATION IN REPEATED TRAIT JUDGMENTS - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STRUCTURE OF TRAIT CONCEPTS

The data described in this paper suggest that an initial trait judgmen t will sometimes reduce the time it takes for a judge to make a later trait judgement. Three separate types of facilitation were apparent. T he first of these was a general practice effect: subjects simply got f aster at making trait judgments with increasing practice at the judgme nt task. The second of these was a short-term specific facilitation ef fect: With no items intervening between two successive trait judgments , the second judgment was speeded when the trait term used in the seco nd judgment was: (1) the same as used in the first judgment; (2) a syn onym of the trait term used in the first judgment; or (3) an antonym o f the trait term used in the first judgment. The third of these was a long-term specific facilitation effect: With multiple items intervenin g between the two trait judgments, responses were speeded only when th e trait used in the second judgment was the same as used in the first judgment, or was a synonym of the trait used in the first judgment; no facilitation occurred when the second trait judgment involved an anto nym of the trait used in the initial judgment. Results are discussed i n terms of various models describing the cognitive representation of t rait concepts. (C) 1997 Academic Press