The role of expectancy violating behaviors in the representation of trait knowledge: A summary-plus-exception model of social memory

The authors propose a summary-plus-exception model of trait knowledge. According to this model, (a) knowledge of a target's traits consists of abstract trait summaries to which are linked memories of specific instances in which the target's behavior was inconsistent with generalizations contained in a summary, and (b) summary-inconsistent behavioral memories are activated along with trait summary knowledge when a trait judgment is made. The authors test these ideas using a variant of the priming procedure developed by Klein and Loftus (e.g., Klein & Loftus, 1993a; Klein, Loftus, & Burton, 1989; Klein, Loftus, Trafton, & Fuhrman, 1992). Their findings offer strong support for a summary-plus-exception model: Across six studies, comprising a variety of experimental conditions, the authors consistently find that judgments about a target's traits facilitate the subsequent retrieval of summary-inconsistent behaviors performed by the target, but not summary-consistent ones. The authors then show how a summary-plus-exception model can shed light on the processes involved in impression change. Finally, the authors discuss implications of their model for theories of social memory.