PERSONALITY AND PERCEPTUAL EXPERTISE - INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTUAL IDENTIFICATION

We hypothesized that people become expert at perceiving information that is related to concepts they think about a great deal, because of their extensive perceptual experience with this material. To test this idea, we manipulated the capitalization of a series of briefly exposed words. If expertise emerges because of perceptual experience, then people should show facilitation identifying words that they think about a great deal, but only when capitalization of these words is consistent with prior perceptual experience with these words. Support for this hypothesis was found in two experiments-one in which trait words were presented to depressed and nondepressed subjects, and one in which food words were presented to anorexic and nonanorexic subjects. Thus, these experiments demonstrated that personality, as well as personality disorder, has the potential to change the nature of the input people receive from the perceptual system.