The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Psychology THE ROLE OF EXPECTATIONS IN THE ENCODING AND RETRIEVAL OF FACES A Thesis in Psychology by Troy Garrett Steiner © 2017 Troy Garrett Steiner Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science December 2017 ii The thesis of Troy Garrett Steiner was reviewed and approved* by the following: Reginald B. Adams, Jr. Associate Professor of Psychology Thesis Advisor Theresa K. Vescio Associate Professor of Psychology Nancy A. Dennis Associate Professor of Psychology Melvin Mark Professor of Psychology Head of the Department of Psychology *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT The ability to remember people— a skill detectable in newborn infants (Field, Woodson, & Greenberg, 1983) — is remarkable and critical to a functional social life (Yardley, McDermott, Pisarski, Duchaine, & Nakayama, 2008). However, memory is often imperfect (e.g., eyewitnesses identify the wrong individual as often as 78% of the time; Malpass & Devine, 1981), as well as biased (e.g., the ability to remember faces dramatically decreases if the person belongs to a different group or race; Hugenberg & Corneille, 2009). Several contemporary models attempt to address how preconceived expectations might influence the ability to accurately remember faces (i.e., sensitivity) as well as the tendency to falsely remember a face (i.e., bias). However, these models differ on whether people will be more adept at remembering faces that satisfy (i.e., are congruent with) or violate (i.e., are incongruent to) preconceived expectations and whether the contribution of these expectancies will have the greatest influence at the initial formation of the memory (encoding) or at the recall stage of the memory (retrieval). Across three experiments, I present evidence addressing how individual differences in expectation strength operationalized as stereotype endorsement influences memory sensitivity and memory bias and the contributory effects of the encoding and retrieval stages of memory to this phenomenon. These results are later interpreted and discussed in light of the models reviewed, with a focus on societal implications, and potential future directions seeking to further examine potential moderators and additional cognitive underpinnings of this phenomenon. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1 The Relationship between Social Expectations and Memory ................................. 1 Encoding and Retrieval .................................................................................................... 5 Models that Address how Expectations Influence Memory ............................................ 7 Schematic Information-Processing Model ............................................................... 8 Schema-Pointer Plus Tag Model .............................................................................. 9 Attractor Field Model ............................................................................................... 10 Associative Network Model ..................................................................................... 12 Model Comparisons ................................................................................................. 13 Current Research .............................................................................................................. 15 Chapter 2 Method .................................................................................................................... 17 Experiment 1 .................................................................................................................... 18 Participants ............................................................................................................... 18 Stimuli ...................................................................................................................... 19 Design and Procedure............................................................................................... 20 Results ...................................................................................................................... 23 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 26 Experiment 2 .................................................................................................................... 29 Participants ............................................................................................................... 30 Stimuli ...................................................................................................................... 30 Design and Procedure............................................................................................... 30 Results ...................................................................................................................... 31 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 34 Experiment 3 .................................................................................................................... 37 Participants ............................................................................................................... 38 Stimuli ...................................................................................................................... 38 Design and Procedure............................................................................................... 39 Results ...................................................................................................................... 39 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 42 Chapter 3 General Discussion .................................................................................................. 46 Experimental Review ....................................................................................................... 47 Implication for the Models of Expectations and Memory ............................................... 50 Social Implications ........................................................................................................... 54 Conclusions and Future Directions .................................................................................. 55 Appendix: List of Math Questions Used in the Distractor Task .................................. 58 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2-1. Example stimuli for Experiments 1, 2, and 3 ........................................................ 20 Figure 2-2. Experiment 1 Results: Sensitivity ......................................................................... 25 Figure 2-3. Experiment 1 Results: Bias ................................................................................... 26 Figure 2-4. Experiment 2 Results: Sensitivity ......................................................................... 33 Figure 2-5. Experiment 2 Results: Bias ................................................................................... 34 Figure 2-6. Experiment 3 Results: Sensitivity ......................................................................... 41 Figure 2-7. Experiment 3 Results: Bias ................................................................................... 42 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1. Model Comparisons ................................................................................................ 15 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes”, I am but a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants; Bernard of Chartres and later Isaac Newton were describing the great bodies of work that provided the foundation for their own accomplishments. Indeed, this thesis would not have been possible without the contributions of the scientific community, but I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to the people whose gracious generosity and insurmountable kindness made this accomplishment possible; you too are the giants upon which I stand. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Reginald B. Adams, Jr, for his support, guidance, and for providing me this all- too-rare opportunity. I would also like to thank my parents and grandparents for leading by example with respect to their admirations for kindness, humor, family, and science. I am also grateful to my friend and lab-mate, Anthony J. Nelson, of whom I have always thought of as a role model and mentor. I would also like to thank my brother-in-arms, Daniel N. Albohn, for both his continuing support and constant challenge in nearly all aspects of my life. Furthermore, this work would not have been possible without my dedicated team of research assistants: Brandon F. McCormick, Brittney O. Jessick, Natalie A. Augustine, Kierstin Barbieri, Andrea K. Frank, Malini Suresh Nair, and Rachel L. Waite. Finally, I would like to express my tremendous gratitude and boundless love to my fiancée, Irena Gorski, for all the things that would take another thesis to put into words. 1 Chapter 1 The