Collective Memory

We aligned the two procedures – collaborative recall and part-list cuing recall – by taking the recall output of each collaborative group and generating cues for part-list cued participants. This yoked design enabled us to present identical cues and equate their presentation sequence across the two cuing conditions. Across two experiments (N = 270), we replicated both the standard collaborative inhibition and part-list cuing impairments. Collaborative groups exhibited more reciprocal influence on one another’s recall than part-list cuing participants, producing responses from the same taxonomic category as the cues more often than part-list cuing participants, and exhibiting greater collective memory. These findings provide evidence for the operation of the cross-cuing mechanism in social remembering relative to nonsocial remembering.

In Experiment 1, online participants studied a word list and, in a chatroom, recalled the words either alone (as controls) or with two other participants. Surprisingly, collaborative inhibition – the robust finding of lower recall in collaborative groups than controls – disappeared. This outcome occurred because participants who worked alone recalled less than what we see in in-person studies. In Experiment 2, where instructions were modified and an experimenter was present, individual performance improved, resulting in collaborative inhibition.

Collaboration can simultaneously reinforce and impair memories of the past. Interestingly, collaboration can also serve as a tool to homogenize memories of the past - giving rise to the formation of collectively shared memories.