Effects of the Temporal Context of Information

Summary .—The past and the future are treated as temporal contexts which can be varied, with information held constant. The same information presented in past tense should, on the basis of earlier work, evoke more detailed and more common responses than this information phrased in the future tense. Quantitative and qualitative detail are separated operationally. The results show significant effects of temporal context on quantitative detail and on rarity of events.