Self-Consciousness, Information Load, Self-Presentation, and Memory in a Social Situation

Summary Personal and social interaction factors, which were expected to divert attention from external stimuli and events and thus impair memory for persons, were examined. High trait self-consciousness, high information load, and two elements of self-presentation (high state self-consciousness and information transmission) were expected to produce worse recall of persons’ names and characteristics. Forty low self-conscious and 40 high self-conscious females heard five females introduce themselves either by name or by name with other information. Ss presented themselves either not at all or more fully in one of four conditions. The more information Ss heard, the worse their recall of names was. Low self-conscious Ss remembered characteristics better than high self-conscious Ss. Self-presentation did not affect either kind of recall. Results were discussed in terms of narrowed attention to different elements of the social situation.

[1]  S. Streufert,et al.  The perception of information relevance , 1970 .

[2]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Attention and Effort , 1973 .

[3]  S. Duval,et al.  A theory of objective self awareness , 1972 .

[4]  S. Duval,et al.  Effects of objective self-awareness on attribution of causality , 1973 .

[5]  Robin R. Vallacher,et al.  Objective Self Awareness and the Perception of Others , 1978 .

[6]  L. Brooks.  Spatial and verbal components of the act of recall. , 1968 .

[7]  H. Fromkin,et al.  Cognitive tuning set and behavioral receptivity to discrepant information1 , 1968 .

[8]  Stanley M. Halpin,et al.  Information load, proportion of relevance, and relevance perception , 1971 .

[9]  A. Cohen.  Cognitive tuning as a factor affecting impression formation. , 1961, Journal of personality.

[10]  H. Leventhal.  The effects of set and discrepancy on impression change. , 1962, Journal of personality.

[11]  C. Carver,et al.  Self-focusing effects of dispositional self-consciousness, mirror presence, and audience presence. , 1978 .

[12]  P. H. Lindsay.  Human Information Processing , 1977 .

[13]  D. Buss,et al.  Self-consciousness, self-awareness, and self-attribution , 1976 .

[14]  M. Scheier,et al.  Public and private self-consciousness: Assessment and theory. , 1975 .

[15]  C. Kleinke,et al.  Evaluation of a person who uses another's name in ingratiating and noningratiating situations , 1972 .

[16]  D. Broadbent.  Perception and communication , 1958 .

[17]  C. Carver.  A cybernetic model of self-attention processes. , 1979 .

[18]  M. Scheier.  Self-awareness, self-consciousness, and angry aggression. , 1976, Journal of personality.

[19]  A. Fenigstein.  Self-Consciousness, Self-Attention, and Social Interaction , 1979 .

[20]  R. Zajonc.  The process of cognitive tuning in communication. , 1960, Journal of abnormal and social psychology.

[21]  D. Dooling,et al.  Effects of comprehension on retention of prose , 1971 .

[22]  C. Carver,et al.  Self-focused attention and the experience of emotion: attraction, repulsion, elation, and depression. , 1977, Journal of personality and social psychology.