The research in this CAREER proposal is directed towards improving our fundamental understanding of the accuracy of perceptual judgments based on very minimal information - brief `thin slices` or glimpses of behavior (such as 2-second silent video clips). Recent research suggests that people can make surprisingly accurate judgments from such slices. For example, judgments of thin slices of behavior have been found to predict important outcome variables in social and clinical psychology as accurately as judgments of thicker slices. The goal of the proposed research is to advance the field by elucidating some of the mechanisms that affect the real-life accuracy of perceptual appraisals, evaluations, and personality judgments from minimal information. The proposed work will integrate theoretical and empirical approaches from the areas of perception, cognitive science, education, communication, social cognition, ecological, cultural, and personality psychology. Specifically, the research program will explore (a) potential cognitive mechanisms that might be related to the accuracy of thin slice judgments; (b) potential affective mechanisms that might be related to the accuracy of thin slice judgments; (c) the automaticity of such judgments, (d) the efficacy and accuracy of such judgments in relation to judgments based on thick slices with considerably more information; (e) the stability of such judgments over time and across situations; and (f) the stability and generalizability of such judgments across cultures. Accuracy will be evaluated in relation to criteria that have considerable importance and ecological validity, such as indices of teacher effectiveness. The methods used to examine these mechanisms are diverse and include experimental, correlational, and meta-analytic techniques. The educational objectives of this CAREER proposal are (a) to develop courses to actively engage graduate and undergraduate students in research on interpersonal perception and communication using thin slices; (b) to design and conduct workshops to train educational and healthcare professionals in communication and interpersonal skills, and (c) to develop new assessment tools using multimedia technology.
