title: Preparing for novel versus familiar events: shifts in global and local processing.
abstract: Six experiments examined whether novelty versus familiarity influences global versus local processing styles. Novelty and familiarity were manipulated by either framing a task as new versus familiar or by asking participants to reflect upon novel versus familiar events prior to the task (i.e., procedural priming). In Experiments 1-3, global perception was enhanced after novelty priming or framing, whereas familiarity priming facilitated local perception relative to a control group. In Experiment 4, participants used more inclusive categories under novelty priming and narrower categories under familiarity priming. In Experiments 5-6, participants construed actions and products more abstractly when these were framed as novel as compared to familiar. These results support the construal level theory (N. Liberman & Y. Trope, 2008; Y. Trope & N. Liberman, 2003) contention that having less direct experience is associated with using higher construal levels. Implications of the findings for research on mood, processing styles, stereotypes, and consumer research are discussed.
authors: Social Psychology Department, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. j.a.forster@uva.nl
authors: Jens
authors: J
authors: Förster
authors: Nira
authors: N
authors: Liberman
authors: Oren
authors: O
authors: Shapira
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003210:Concept Formation; D003469:Culture; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology