Abstract
Three experiments investigated farmers’and nonfarmers’ perceptions about farmers and the effects of these schemata on memory for a story about a character who was or was not identified as a farmer. Experiment 1 identified dimensions on which farmers’ and nonfarmers’ perceptions about farmers differed significantly. This information was used to construct stories, used in Experiments 2A and 2B, about a businessman facing bankruptcy. Half of the stories described Robert in a manner consistent with the farmers’ schema about farmers; the other half described him in a manner consistent with the nonfarmers’ schema about farmers. Another variable, label, identified Robert as a farmer or small businessman or did not identify his occupation. The results showed several complex interactions of the subjects’ schema information, the label, and the content of the story, both under conditions of immediate testing and 2 days later.
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Thanks are expressed to Lawrence Schoen and John Skowronski for helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.
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Harris, R.J., Thompson, M.A. & Stoltz, S. Social cognition in the breadbasket: The effect of schematic information about farmers on farmers’ and nonfarmers’ memory for stories. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 25, 155–158 (1987). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330314
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330314