Effects of category prototypes on performance-rating accuracy.

Abstract

Two studies examined whether the accessibility of performance prototypes influences performance appraisals. Pilot studies revealed students used performance prototypes when rating instructor performance. Study 1 manipulated the accessibility of these prototypes and the time delay of performance ratings. Results showed no effect of the prime on rating error and accuracy; however, discrimination accuracy decreased over time and recognition bias became more conservative. Study 2 manipulated prototype accessibility and type of rating stimuli (videotape vs. vignette). Rating accuracy and recall were higher for vignette than videotape stimuli, and only those participants exposed to the vignette exhibited priming effects. Results supported transfer-appropriate processing and implied that cognitive primes may have a stronger effect on performance ratings based on "paperpeople" than videotaped stimuli.The ability to effectively inhibit errors in performance appraisals requires an understanding of their root causes (Ilgen & Favero, 1985;Ilgen & Feldman, 1983). Consequently, research in the last decade has concentrated on cognitive processes by which raters collect, encode, store, and integrate ratee information in memory and retrieve it when needed (Cooper, 1981;DeNisi, Cafferty, & Meglino, 1984;Feldman, 1981). Obstacles encountered during any of these information-processing stages may undermine rating accuracy. The encoding of incoming stimuli about ratee behavior is one stage that is particularly vulnerable to rating errors (Nathan & Lord, 1983).During encoding, a rater compares perceived ratee features with schemas or prototypes (Fiske & Taylor, 1991;Rosch, 1975). When ratee features resemble a conceptual category, the ratee is assigned to this category (Feldman, 1981). In this form, a transformed version of original ratee information becomes amenable

The application of vignettes in social and nursing research

“…Loman and Larkin (1976) argue that written vignettes should be abandoned in favour of videotaped presentations that allow direct observation to capture more of the ambiguities surrounding everyday life and individual behaviour. Similarly, Kinicki et al . (1995) suggest that vignettes in the form of `paper people' are simple abstract stimuli which impose lower interpretational demands on participants than videotaped or real life events.…”

“…To varying degrees, vignettes selectively simulate elements of the research topics under study (Lanza & Carifio 1992, Gould 1996), but, like any research tool, they can never mirror completely the reality and dynamism of people's lives (Faia 1980, Parkinson & Manstead 1993, Kinicki et al . 1995).…”

Effects of Trainer Reputation and Trainees' Need for Cognition on Training Outcomes

“…Positive instructor behaviors included (a) providing autonomy to students by allowing them to show initiative in class; (b) demonstrating relatedness through providing support, care, and approachability; and (c) being lively and expressive in class (Murray, Rushton, & Paunonen, 1990;Towler & Dipboye, 2001). Ineffective teachers have been described as being rude to students (Kinicki, Hom, Trost, & Wade, 1995), ignoring students (Reyna & Weiner, 2001), and having an inability to connect students and subject matter (Carson, 1999).…”

Categorical Models of Childhood Disorder: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis

“…This account uses a social psychological analysis of the motivated and active way in which people, in this case clinicians, process information about other people, in this case patients (Brown, 1995 ;Dijkterhuis & Knippenberg, 1996 ;Fiske, 1993 ;Gannon & Ostram, 1996 ;Kinicki, Hom, Trost, & Wade, 1995). From such a point of view the medical model is not an abberative product of one person's imagination motivated by a need for order and symmetry.…”