The social structural basis of the organization of persons in memory

This paper summarizes and discusses three studies of patterns in the recall of persons in socially bounded communities. Individual sin three different communities (a graduate academic program, a religious fellowship, and a department in a formal organization) free-listed the names of persons in their respective communities. Results indicate that the individuals in each community share a common cognitive structure of community members that is based on the community’s social structure. These studies, combined with the results of other research, strongly suggest that persons are organized in memory according to social structural principles and that affiliation and dominance are the principal dimensions of social cognition. Suggestions are offered for future research to test the generality of these findings. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 3rd European Conference on Social Network Analysis, June, 1993, in München (Munich), Germany. This research was supported by an Air Force Laboratory Graduate Fellowship awarded to the author by the U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Devon D. Brewer received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, and is currently a research consultant with the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington. His research focuses on social networks, cognitive anthropology, and research methods.