Saliency at first sight: instant identity referential advantage toward a newly met partner

Abstract

Neutral information enjoys beneficial processing when it is associated with self and significant others, but less is known about how the identity referential advantage is constructed in the initial stages of a relationship. We offer a novel solution by asking if a newly met stranger could provide a processing advantage in a shape-identity matching task where shapes were associated with the names of different identities. Each participant was paired with a newly met partner in a joint shape-identity matching task in which three shapes were associated with the names of the participant or his/her best friend, the partner, and a stranger, respectively. The participants judged whether or not the shape and name correctly matched.Intriguingly, the trials related to a newly met partner exhibited instant referential saliency, which was more accurate and faster than that related to the stranger’s name (baseline) when the partner was physically present (experiments 1, 2, 4, 5), but not when the partner was absent (experiment 3). Self-advantage, however, was robust and lasting. The precursor of physical presence when forming referential saliency toward a stranger and its distinct temporal dynamics imply a novel referential benefit unendowed with familiarity, which is qualitatively different from the well-documented self/friend-advantage effect.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s41235-019-0186-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Sticking together? Re-binding previous other-associated stimuli interferes with self-verification but not partner-verification

“…Thus, no evidence for a partner-prioritisation effect was obtained (c.f. Cheng & Tseng, 2019). A lack of an overall partner-prioritisation effect, however, was no surprise given previous results.…”

“…One of the primary goals of the present joint-task was to determine if a partner-prioritisation effect might be observed through a task that was designed to pick up on subtle partner effects given that there has been inconsistency in observing partner-prioritisation (Cheng & Tseng, 2019;Constable, Elekes, et al, 2019). Joint tasks often provide evidence that a representation of a partner's task, actions or cognitive states is formed (E.g.…”

“…Constable, Rajsic, et al, 2019). Such response facilitation towards a known other also may extend to a newly met experimental partner (Cheng & Tseng, 2019). Cheng and Tseng (2019) recruited pairs of participants to engage in an adapted identity matching task.…”

“…Such response facilitation towards a known other also may extend to a newly met experimental partner (Cheng & Tseng, 2019). Cheng and Tseng (2019) recruited pairs of participants to engage in an adapted identity matching task. After making associations between a shape and an identity (self, partner, stranger) participants were required to indicate if a given shape and label pairing matched or did not match.…”

“…As expected, a robust self-prioritisation effect was observed and this effect was complimented by a partner-prioritisation effect. Interestingly, no partnerprioritisation effect was observed when the participant had not met their task partner (Experiment 3: Cheng & Tseng, 2019). Constable and colleagues presented a similar study with five different identities (E4: Constable, Elekes, et al, 2019) except one participant was in charge of match responses and the other in charge of mismatch responses.…”