Learning and Remembering with Others: The Key Role of Retrieval in Shaping Group Recall and Collective Memory

TitleLearning and Remembering with Others: The Key Role of Retrieval in Shaping Group Recall and Collective Memory
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsSarah J. Barber, Suparna Rajaram, Ethan B. Fox
JournalSocial Cognition
Volume30
Issue1
Pagination121-132
ISSN0278016X
Call Number70480159
Abstract

People frequently collaborate to learn and remember information, and this may help groups create shared representations of the world (i.e., collective memories). However, contrary to intuitions, collaboration also lowers group recall levels. Such impairment occurs regardless of whether people collaborate when first experiencing, or encoding, an event (the collaborative encoding deficit), or when retrieving, or remembering, the event (the collaborative inhibition effect). In understanding how collaboration impairs group recall and enhances shared, or collective, memories it remains unknown as to where collaboration exerts the greatest influence-at encoding or at retrieval-to shape these distinct phenomena. The current study simultaneously compared collaboration at these two stages and revealed the power of collaborative retrieval. Collaboration impaired the group recall product at both time points, but especially so at retrieval. Furthermore, only collaborative retrieval played a significant role in the formation of collective memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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DOI10.1521/soco.2012.30.1.121
Short TitleLearning and Remembering with Others