The role of cognitive style of impulsivity-reflexivity in implicit learning (the example of the social perception tasks)

We study the phenomenon of implicit learning in tasks of social perception. A large number of experimental data testifies that in the solution of various cognitive tasks, particularly in assessing psychological qualities of the other person by his/her appearance, the subjects of assessment can operate in two alternative modes: based on explicit or implicit knowledge. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the choice of a way of thinking is associated with such a parameter of cognitive style as impulsivity/reflexivity. We conducted an experiment in which the subjects on the training stage implicitly learned the implicit pattern between the type of hairstyle and the IQ of young women and on the test stage evaluated the IQ of another group of young women by their photos. According to the results, impulsive subjects are more sensitive to the implicit patterns and more often rely on it in the evaluation of psychological characteristics of another person. The rate of response of both impulsive and reflexive subjects was lower in the case of accounting and reliance by them on the imposed implicit rule

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