Chapter 10 Chapter Summary

Chapter Overview:

Chapter 10 explores the effects of social context on memory and the biases that develop as the result of social interaction.

When we experience events with others, we often engage in collaborative recall, that is when multiple people recall a memory together. Often, people engage in what psychologists call transactive memory. Transactive memory occurs when a group shares a memory task so that one individual does not have to remember the entire event alone. Transactive memory generally increases the amount of information recalled but not as much as the sum of all individual members could recall. This phenomenon is called collaborative inhibition. While originally thought the result of social loafing, collaborative inhibition is more likely the result of retrieval disruption. A similar effect is found using the partial-list cueing method in individuals—giving people part of a list to be recalled tends to inhibit the recall of the rest of the list instead of helping. This effect is most likely because it interferes with an individual’s personal recall strategy. Another reason for collaborative inhibition is information-sampling bias, that is, people are less likely to discuss information if not discussed by others in the group. As a result, information held by only one person is much less likely to be shared in the group. And finally, collaborative inhibition can be the result of audience tuning which occurs when the listeners are affected by what is recalled and how it is recalled. For example, when speakers are recalling an event, they tend to be more factual than when they are retelling it (retelling includes biases towards making the remembrance more entertaining and more in keeping with the listener’s expectations).

Conversations with others can impact memory. Interaction can create social contagion—the spread of behaviour and ideas that can impact on our memory. For example, incorrect or distorted information received after an event can alter memories. This phenomenon is called the misinformation effect. Social conformity, or changing one’s behaviour, can impact collaborative recall as people might be more likely to “go with the flow” and agree with the information provided by others. Social conformity can be explained in part as an effort to fit in (i.e., normative influence). Another explanation of the misinformation effect is source confusion (not remembering the source of a memory). Of course, social contagion is not inevitable and can be moderated by cognitive factors like whether the new information is consistent with the listener’s schemas, the time a person has to process the new information and whether the speaker is perceived as an expert or has more power than the listener. Also, warnings, especially before the erroneous material is received, can decrease social contagion.

Mnemonic silences during conversations can also distort memory. That is, by inhibiting material related to a conversation, we may prompt retrieval-induced forgetting. This finding is true for both the speaker and the listener. On the other hand, retrieving a conversation can make the details easier to recall in the future and this benefit (known as the generation effect) impacts the speaker much more than the listener in terms of future recall. Social networks expand these findings beyond the two-way conversation and explain how “fake news” can spread through social contagion. Research conducted long ago by Bartlett (1932) examined how distortions can spread through a serial repetition task. Newer research has focused on how people audience tune their communications in order to create shared realities with others. Collective memories are shared within an in-group and help define group’s social identity. Like other collaborative memories, collective memories are shaped by social cognition, reinforcement and retrieval-induced forgetting. Marginalized groups like the Indigenous people of Canada may not have the same collective memories as other groups—this may help to perpetuate inequalities and injustice. Likewise, stereotypical information is much more likely to be shared (and therefore rehearsed) than information inconsistent with stereotypes, thereby perpetuating a stereotype.

Implicit memory, the sense of knowing without the sense of remembering, influences our beliefs and social behaviours. An illusory correlation is an incorrect belief that two variables are related that often develops when distinctive events occur together. Illusory correlations can help explain the development of stereotypes. That is, when members of minority groups (who are distinct by definition) display distinctive behaviours or attributes, illusory correlations are often formed, making people believe that these behaviours are typical of the minority group. Because it is easier to form illusory correlations when the distinct behaviours are negative, stereotypes tend to be negative. It is important to note that these illusory correlations are not based on reality or on our memories but on a cognitive bias. Implicit memory influences what and who we like as well as what we believe to be true. The mere exposure effect occurs when people prefer stimuli just because they have been exposed to them in the past. Likewise, the more time we spend with people, the more we like them (called the propinquity effect). We are also more likely to perceive a statement as factual if we have seen it before (regardless if we know it to be true)—this is called the illusory-truth effect.

Stereotypes may also influence behaviour through implicit memory. Research using the implicit-association test (IAT) has repeatedly shown that people who espouse non-prejudicial beliefs often show evidence of stereotypes in implicit memory tasks related to age, weight, race, religion, orientation, and many others. In the IAT, participants are shown a word (or image) on a computer screen and asked to sort it in one of two categories as quickly as possible. For example, if the categories were Male and Female, participants would sort the words uncle, son, husband into the Male category and the words aunt, daughter and wife in the Female category. Another category would then be added to the baseline measure. For example, Career and Family where words like occupation, salary, business and children, home, parents, respectively, would be classified. In some trials, Career would be paired with Male and Family with Female. In other trials, the reverse would happen. If participants had an implicit association (a stereotype) between male and career and female and family, reaction times will be quick for those classification but slow for male and family. While these results are very reliable, research has shown that even implicit stereotypes can be reduced by thinking about counterstereotypes before taking the IAT.

Cognitive dissonance refers to a mental state of conflict that occurs when we behave in ways that are incongruent with our beliefs or if we learn of new information that contradicts our beliefs. According to the theory, we are motivated to reduce the dissonance by changing our attitudes or our behaviours. Recent research has shown that cognitive dissonance can help explain memory distortions. When participants are put in situations that evoke cognitive dissonance that end up in a change of attitude, the original attitudes are often recalled as being more consistent with the modified attitude than they were.

Learning Objectives:

Having read this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

1. Define transactive memory.
2. Describe benefits and costs of collaborative remembering.
3. Describe the generation effect.
4. Explain how retrieval can be used to help people forget painful memories.
5. Discuss how a social network influences memory.
6. Define collective memory.
7. Explain how illusory correlations can give rise to stereotypes.
8. Describe the mere exposure effect, the propinquity effect, and the illusory-truth effect.
9. Describe the implicit-association test (IAT) and explain what the IAT is used to measure.
10. Explain how cognitive dissonance can affect autobiographical memory.