THE IMPACT OF ACCURACY MOTIVATION ON INTERPRETATION, COMPARISON, AND CORRECTION PROCESSES - ACCURACY X KNOWLEDGE ACCESSIBILITY EFFECTS

Four studies provide evidence for the notion that there may be boundar ies to the extent to which accuracy motivation may help perceivers to escape the influence of fortuitously activated information. Specifical ly, although accuracy motivations may eliminate assimilative accessibi lity effects, they are less likely to eliminate contrastive accessibil ity effects. It was found that the occurrence of different types of co ntrast effects (comparison and correction) was not significantly affec ted by participants' accuracy motivations. Furthermore, it was found t hat the mechanisms instigated by accuracy motivations differ from thos e ignited by correction instructions: Accuracy motivations attenuate a ssimilation effects because perceivers add target interpretations to t he one suggested by primed information. Conversely, it was found that correction instructions yield contrast and prompt respondents to remov e the priming event's influence from their reaction to the target.