ABSTRACT
With the help of prior knowledge, new information can be interpreted and, moreover, additional inferences can be drawn. This chapter addresses this issue in greater detail. It outlines and demonstrates the general principle, then provides selective examples, and finally discusses general background variables that influence encoding processes. The chapter focuses on the first step in the idealized sequence of social information processing, namely, on how individuals make sense of a particular situation, that is, how they perceive and encode information. When taking a closer look at the mechanisms that are involved in information accessibility, it becomes important to differentiate between the stimulus—that is, the prime—and the information activated in memory. Everyone has presumably had the experience that situations are perceived differently depending on how close these situations appear to us. Different representations result in different interpretations, meanings, and consequently behaviors, and construal level theory has been applied to numerous domains.
