CATEGORY-BASED AND FEATURE-BASED PROCESSES IN PERFORMANCE-APPRAISAL -INTEGRATING VISUAL AND COMPUTERIZED SOURCES OF PERFORMANCE DATA

Recent developments in computerized performance monitoring (CPM) raise issues about how supervisors use monitored information. On the basis of theories of person perception that distinguish between category-bas ed and feature-based information-processing strategies, the authors ex amined how raters integrate performance information from two sources: visual and computerized. Ss received positive or negative computerized data and viewed positive or negative episodes of a secretary's perfor mance. Visual data were most influential in determining raters' proces sing strategies, suggesting that raters used category-based strategies when viewing positive performance and increased their use of feature- based strategies when viewing negative performance, regardless of the evaluative implications of the computerized data. Implications for per formance appraisal and CPM systems are discussed.