Ten studies will offer several theoretical and methodological advances in the area of personality and memory. The studies will test the hypothesis that implicit and self-attributed motives differentially influence memory processes. Implicit motives are expected to lead to improved selective attention, encoding, and subsequent recall under conditions that engage the specific affective qualities of the motive. Self-attributed motives, on the other hand, are predicted to lead to improved selective attention, encoding and subsequent recall under conditions that activate self-conceptions and values related to the motive. Eight experiments will be the first series of studies to use standard cognitive memory paradigms to demonstrate the influence of personality motivation on memory. The experiments will show that standard cognitive memory tasks can be used successfully to differentially engage implicit and self-attributed motives such that motive-specific affect engages implicit motives to improve recall and explicit recall instructions or goals pertaining to self-attributes activate self-reported motives to improve recall. In these experiments, different encoding conditions and recall instructions are predicted to interact with personality motives to determine recall, both accuracy and speed. The last two studies employ a web-based daily diary methodology to demonstrate that the same motivational processes that influence memory in the lab are also evident in the everyday experiences of individuals with agentic and communal goals. ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01MH064657-03A1
Application #
6902884
Study Section
Social Psychology, Personality and Interpersonal Processes Study Section (SPIP)
Program Officer
Kurtzman, Howard S
Project Start
2001-09-26
Project End
2009-03-31
Budget Start
2005-04-08
Budget End
2006-03-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$151,381
Indirect Cost
Name
Barnard College
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
068119601
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10027
Bender, Michael; Woike, Barbara A; Burke, Christopher T et al. (2012) The relationship between implicit and explicit motives, goal pursuit, and autobiographical memory content during a diary study. J Res Pers 46:374-383
Woike, Barbara A (2008) A functional framework for the influence of implicit and explicit motives on autobiographical memory. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 12:99-117
Woike, Barbara; Matic, Dina (2004) Cognitive complexity in response to traumatic experiences. J Pers 72:633-57
Woike, Barbara; Mcleod, Shenequa; Goggin, Michelle (2003) Implicit and explicit motives influence accessibility to different autobiographical knowledge. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 29:1046-55