Learning and memory mechanisms underlying impression formation and updating

Impression formation is the process of learning about people—how a perceiver infers another person’s character traits, goals, and preferences and forms their own attitude toward that person. Emerging research shows that impressions are formed through a variety of mechanisms—a multimodal process rooted in different underlying systems of learning and memory. In this Perspective, I describe the roles of episodic, semantic, instrumental, and Pavlovian memory systems in impression formation and updating. By considering the unique and interactive functions of learning and memory mechanisms, this memory systems framework expands and clarifies understanding of how impressions are formed, changed, and expressed in behavior, relative to prior accounts based only on semantic memory models. This framework also illuminates longstanding debates on the nature of implicit social cognition and how social information is represented in the mind.