Anticipated Interaction, Individual Differences in Attentional Resources, and Elaboration of Behavior

The hypothesis was that greater an individual's attentional resources, the more extensively he or she will elaborate on another's behavior in terms of underlying traits, as evidenced by greater clustering by trait category and higher frequency in recall. In Studies 1 and 2 participants were provided with behavioral information concerning a person they expected to meet, after which incidental recall was assessed. Processing speed and working memory were later assessed as indicators of attentional resources. As expected, participants with greater resources evidenced greater clustering (Studies 1 & 2) and higher frequency (Study 2) in recall than those with less resources. Findings of Study 2 were replicated in Study 3 in which attentional resources were manipulated.