EFFECTS OF FRAME-OF-REFERENCE TRAINING ON RATER ACCURACY UNDER ALTERNATIVE TIME DELAYS

The authors investigated the effects of frame-of-reference (FOR) train ing on various indexes of distance and correlational accuracy under al ternative time delays. One hundred fifty subjects were assigned random ly to either FOR- or control- (i.e., minimal) training conditions, wit h 1 of 3 time delays: (a) no delay between training, observation, and rating; (b) ratings performed 2 days following training and ratee obse rvations; or (c) ratee observations and ratings completed 2 days follo wing training. Hypotheses were proposed predicting specific relationsh ips between accuracy, recall memory, and learning, depending on the de lay period. Overall, results supported the categorization perspective on FOR-training effectiveness; however, different results were obtaine d depending on the type of accuracy index and time delay. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in terms of how they relate to the conceptual distinction between distance and correlational accu racy and to the role of on-line, memory-based, and inference-memory-ba sed processing in the ratings of FOR-trained raters.