| Spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) are trait inferences that are made without intention or conscious awareness on exposure to trait implying behaviors. If participants try to memorize that"Tom hits the saleswoman without any apparent reason", the trait concept"aggressive"may be spontaneously activated. Inferring people's traits from their behavior has important social functions. It helps us to understand people and their behaviors, to predict what to expect from them, and to prepare smooth interactions with them.According to some reseachers, making STIs involves two separate processes: Activation of the trait concept form the trait-implying sentence (trait activation), and attach or binding that concept to an actor or an informant in long-term memory (trait association). By now, ample empirical evidence for the occurrence of spontaneous trait activation has been fairly obtained form research conducted on the sample of adults.However, surprisingly little empirical research examines the process of spontaneous trait association. And this leads to two important issues remain unresolved. The first concerns what these STIs refer to. In other words, what is the nature of these spontaneous trait inferences about others? Are they about the actors performing the behaviors? Some researchers argue that spontaneous trait inferences merely serve as interpretations of the actors'behaviors. However, the others think that spontaneous trait inferences refer to the actors. For example, some research showed that when a photo of an actor is paired with a trait-implying behavior description, the trait which is inferred from the behavior is become associated with the actor. And similar association of person-trait occurs when the person in the photo is merely a communicator, describing the behavior of another individual.The second issues concerns what is the nature of these spontaneous trait inferences"about"others? Does the trait become one of the predicates about the person? That is, is the traits inferred form the trait-implying behavior is attributed to the person as a label describing him/her? Or is it merely associated with the person because of their co-occurrence?As yet, most of the research mainly focused on the occurrence of spontaneous trait association and the processing mechanism of the spontaneous trait association. However, the influence of actor-trait association and informant-association on people's explicit trait-judgment has not been specifically investigated. Investigations of the influence of STIs on people's explicit trait-judgment may provide insights into person perception.In the present article, a comprehensive literature review was made with regard to the important empirical findings, theoretical explanations as well as the research methodology in the area of STIs, and on the basis of review, four studies were conducted. The first study explored the occurrence and development of children and adolescents'spontaneous trait activations. The second study was conducted to explore the occurrence of actor-trait association and informant-trait association. The aim of the third study was to investigate the nature of the actor-trait association and informant-trait association. And the forth study was conducted to investigate the influence of the implicit actor-trait association and informant-trait association on people's explicit trait-judgment. The findings in the above four studies were as follows:(1)Children at the age of 8 can't make spontaneous trait inferences from trait-implying behaviors. However, 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and undergraduates can spontaneous infer traits form trait-implying behaviors.(2)Once the trait concept implied by the behavior became activated, an association forms in memory between the actor (or informant) and the activated trait for 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and undergraduates. (3)No matter the gender of the actor (or the informant) and the trait-implying behavior was gender-stereotype consistent, inconsistent or neutral, the trait inferred from the behavior was binded to the actor (or the informant) for 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and undergraduates.(4)The gender stereotype-consistency of the actor's gender and his/her behavior influenced the association between the actor and the activated traits for 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and undergraduates. Compared to the base line, when the actor's gender and his/her behavior was gender stereotype-consistent, the association between the actor and the activated traits was facilitated. However, when the actor's gender and his/her behavior was gender stereotype-inconsistent, the association between the actor and the activated traits was inhibited .These results demonstrated that the processing menchanism of the actor-trait association was spontaneous trait attribution.(5)The gender stereotype-consistency of the informant's gender and the behavior which was described by the informant didn't influence the association between the informant and the activated traits for 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and undergraduates. These results demonstrated that the informant-trait association was a consequence of implicit associative process.(6)Compared to baseline, when the gender of the actor and his/her behavior was gender stereotype-consistent, the process of inferring traits form trait-implying behaviors was not facilitated. However, when the gender of the actor and his/her behavior was gender stereotype-inconsistent, the process of inferring traits form trait-implying behaviors was inhibited. The gender stereotype-consistency of the informant's gender and the behavior which was described by the informant didn't influence the process of spontaneous trait activation for 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and undergraduates.(7)The implicit process of actor-trait association influenced 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and undergraduates'explicit trait ratings of the actor. More extreme ratings were given by participants when the actor performed the act than when he/she did not. (8)The implicit process of informant-trait association influenced 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and undergraduates'explicit trait ratings of the informants. More extreme ratings were given by participants when the informant provided trait-implying descriptions than when he/she did not.
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