| Abstract | In the spirit of viewing human memory as a social process, Pavitt (2003) revisited the idea of group memory--recollection of information that occurs collaboratively in groups. This paper outlines and supports Pavitt's 5 major points about group remembering: (a) groups outperform individuals, (b) communication allows the group to know all knowledge of its members, (c) groups do not perform as well as a rational model predicts, (d) process losses increase as group size increases, and (e) group interaction does not guarantee optimal performance. The research on which these conclusions are based examines group memory in a simple inputoutput function. Communication scholars may extend the group memory literature by studying the structure and content of discussion during collective remembering.
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