RESOLVING INTERNAL DISCREPANCIES IMPAIRS COMMUNICATORS RECOGNITION MEMORY - A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Before conveying an impression, implicit rules of communication (espec ially rules to be coherent and truthful) should encourage communicator s to notice and resolve apparent discrepancies. Previous research sugg ests, however, that discrepancy resolution may inadevertently interfer e with memory for the original target attributes. Adopting a linguisti c perspective, we argue that disjunctions reflect noticed discrepancie s (which, if resolved, potentially enhance coherence and truth), and t hat connectives (conjunctions and disjunctions) reflect acknowledged r elations among attributes (which potentially enhance coherence). In an alleged note-taking study, people expecting or not expecting to commu nicate impressions of an internally discrepant or nondiscrepant person jotted notes to themselves. As expected, communicators faced with a d iscrepant target linked attributes with connectives, used disjunctions , and resolved discrepancies. Finally, mediational analyses showed tha t communicators' noticing and resolving discrepancies impaired recogni tion memory. Findings are considered in light of previous research on communication goals and discrepancy resolution.