Source monitoring refers to mental processes leading to attributions regarding the origin of information. We tested Johnson, Hashtroudi, and Lindsay's (1993) assumption that prior source-relevant knowledge is used in some source-monitoring tasks. In two experiments using different domains of schematic knowledge, two sources presented information that was expected for one source and somewhat unexpected for the other. In a later source-monitoring test, participants decided whether items had been presented by Source A,by Source B, or were new. The results of both experiments show that source identification is better for expected items than for somewhat unexpected items. Multinomial modeling analyses revealed that when participants do not remember the source of information, they guess that it was presented by the expected source. These results provide evidence for the claim that source monitoring can be based on prior knowledge and support a guessing hypothesis.

Two experiments examined the generality of the negativity bias, the tendency of perceivers to regard immoral behaviors as more informative or diagnostic about an individual's personal traits than moral behaviors. Both experiments yielded results indicating that perceivers are prone to the bias when information about others is inconsistent in its moral implications but not when information is consistent. Two category-based explanations forthe results were considered, one postulating a two-stage process and the other proposing a simpler process that emphasizes the activation of perceivers' character schemas. The results of both experiments suggest that the negativity bias, although prevalent, is not as pervasive as sometimes thought to be and that character appraisals, once made, are not immutable.

Two studies examined the impact of achievement orientation on counterfactual production in competitive sporting situations. In Study 1, participants created counterfactuals after reading 4 vignettes. Results indicated that participants reading about winners created more subtractive and downward counterfactuals than did participants reading about losers, while participants reading about losers created more additive and upward counterfactuals than did participants reading about winners. In Study 2, using participants in 3‐on‐3 basketball games, achievement orientation interacted with game outcome to produce adaptive responses for participants who held a mastery orientation and maladaptive responses for participants who held an outcome orientation. In addition to achievement orientation, the margin of victory played an important role in determining the type of counterfactual produced. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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