We examined affective consequences arising from the kinds of memory retrieval failures that often accompany social interaction. To do so, we measured the influence of cued-recall outcomes for biographical information on the rated attractiveness of faces. The data demonstrate that retrieval of names (Experiment 1a) and professions (Experiment 1b) increases the rated attractiveness of target faces relative to faces that failed to produce recall of associative information. This was predicted by a confirmation of search (COS) model originally developed on verbal memoranda, which assumes that confirmation bias during memory search leads to affective consequences depending upon retrieval’s success or failure. The current study extends this model, showing that evaluative judgments of individuals are in part contingent upon the memory retrieval skills of their assessors. We conclude by discussing potential extensions of the COS paradigm to the measurement of implicit attitudes and special populations.

我们研究了由于社交互动经常伴随的各种记忆检索失败而引起的情感后果。为此，我们测量了关于个人履历的提示召回结果对面部额定吸引力的影响。数据表明，相对于未能产生联想信息回忆的面孔，检索名字（实验1a）和专业（实验1b）可提高目标面孔的额定吸引力。这是通过最初在口头备忘录上开发的搜索确认（COS）模型进行预测的，该模型假定记忆搜索过程中的确认偏差会导致情感后果，具体取决于检索的成功或失败。目前的研究扩展了该模型，表明个人的评估判断部分取决于评估者的记忆检索技能。最后，我们讨论了COS范式对隐性态度和特殊人群的度量的潜在扩展。