Building consensus about the past: Schema consistency and convergence in socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting

A large body of literature on “within-individual retrieval-induced forgetting” (WI-RIF; Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994) shows that repeatedly retrieving some items, while not retrieving other related items, facilitates later recall of the practised items, but inhibits later recall of the non-practised related items. This robust effect has recently been extended to “socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting” (SS-RIF; Cuc, Koppel, & Hirst, 2007). People who merely listen to a speaker retrieving some, but not other, items—even people participating as speakers or listeners in conversations—show the same facilitation and inhibition. We replicated and extended the SS-RIF effect with a structured story (Experiment 1) and in a free-flowing conversation about the story (Experiment 2). Specifically, we explored (1) the degree to which participants subsequently form a coherent “collective memory” of the story and (2) whether schema consistency of the target information influences both WI-RIF and SS-RIF. In both experiments, speakers and listeners showed RIF (that is, WI-RIF and SS-RIF, respectively), irrespective of the schema consistency of the story material. On final recall, speakers and listeners described similar renderings of the story. We discuss these findings in terms of the role of “silences” in the formation of collective memories.

[1]  William Hirst,et al.  Towards a psychology of collective memory , 2008, Memory.

[2]  Henry L Roediger,et al.  Explorations in the social contagion of memory , 2002, Memory & cognition.

[3]  Michael C. Anderson,et al.  Integration as a general boundary condition on retrieval-induced forgetting , 1999 .

[4]  Steven D. Brown,et al.  The Social Psychology of Experience: Studies in Remembering and Forgetting , 2005 .

[5]  Neil Brewer,et al.  The influence of schemas, stimulus ambiguity, and interview schedule on eyewitness memory over time. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[6]  Lynn Hasher,et al.  Is memory schematic , 1983 .

[7]  B. Basden,et al.  A comparison of group and individual remembering: does collaboration disrupt retrieval strategies? , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[8]  Martin A. Conway,et al.  Retrieval‐induced forgetting of emotional and unemotional autobiographical memories , 2004 .

[9]  Michael C. Anderson,et al.  Remembering can cause forgetting: retrieval dynamics in long-term memory. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[10]  Kathleen B McDermott,et al.  Retrieval-induced facilitation: initially nontested material can benefit from prior testing of related material. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[11]  Jack Goody.  Memory: Memory in Oral Tradition , 1998 .

[12]  Robyn Fivush,et al.  The development of collective remembering , 2008, Memory.

[13]  Jae-Eun Park,et al.  Co-construction of Nonnative Speaker Identity in Cross-cultural Interaction , 2007 .

[14]  H. V. Restorff.  Über die Wirkung von Bereichsbildungen im Spurenfeld , 1933 .

[15]  J. Wertsch,et al.  Collective memory: Conceptual foundations and theoretical approaches , 2008, Memory.

[16]  M. Brewer,et al.  Where (who) are collectives in collectivism? Toward conceptual clarification of individualism and collectivism. , 2007, Psychological review.

[17]  A Comparison of Group and Individual Rewards in Teaching Reading to Slow Learners. Final Report. , 1970 .

[18]  W. S. Rholes,et al.  "Saying is believing": Effects of message modification on memory and liking for the person described. , 1978 .

[19]  E. Zerubavel.  The Elephant in the Room: Silence and Denial in Everyday Life , 2006 .

[20]  B. Basden,et al.  Costs and benefits of collaborative remembering , 2000 .

[21]  F. Strack,et al.  Memory for Nonoccurrences: Metacognitive and Presuppositional Strategies , 1994 .

[22]  M. Pasupathi.  The social construction of the personal past and its implications for adult development. , 2001, Psychological bulletin.

[23]  Benjamin C. Storm,et al.  When intended remembering leads to unintended forgetting , 2007, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[24]  Marcia K. Johnson,et al.  Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of comprehension and recall , 1972 .

[25]  N. J. Slamecka,et al.  The Generation Effect: Delineation of a Phenomenon , 1978 .

[26]  William Hirst,et al.  Silence Is Not Golden , 2007, Psychological science.

[27]  Mary Susan Weldon,et al.  Remembering as a social process , 2000 .

[28]  Stephen D. Goldinger,et al.  Schema‐driven source misattribution errors: remembering the expected from a witnessed event , 2008 .

[29]  Marie Carroll,et al.  Retrieval-induced forgetting in educational contexts: Monitoring, expertise, text integration, and test format , 2007 .

[30]  D. Middleton,et al.  Conversational remembering: a social psychological approach : A social psychological approach David Middleton and Derek Edwards Relations between discourse and memory , 2003 .

[31]  Jeffrey K. Olick.  The Ciphered Transits of Collective Memory: Neo-Freudian Impressions , 2014 .

[32]  M. Anderson,et al.  Forgetting our facts: the role of inhibitory processes in the loss of propositional knowledge. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[33]  H. Hayne,et al.  Child-initiated conversations about the past and memory performance by preschoolers. , 1996 .

[34]  W. Hirst,et al.  Creating Shared Memories in Conversation: Toward a Psychology of Collective Memory , 2014 .

[35]  Michael C. Anderson,et al.  On the status of inhibitory mechanisms in cognition: memory retrieval as a model case. , 1995, Psychological review.

[36]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Fact retrieval and the paradox of interference , 1978, Cognitive Psychology.

[37]  L. L. Sperry,et al.  Early talk about the past: the origins of conversational stories of personal experience , 1988, Journal of Child Language.

[38]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Recall of Previously Unrecallable Information Following a Shift in Perspective. Technical Report No. 41. , 1977 .

[39]  Eviatar Zerubavel,et al.  Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past , 2003 .

[40]  William Hirst,et al.  Forgetting the Unforgettable Through Conversation , 2009, Psychological science.

[41]  W. Hirst,et al.  On the formation of collective memories: The role of a dominant narrator , 2006, Memory & cognition.

[42]  Elizabeth J. Marsh,et al.  Retelling Is Not the Same as Recalling , 2007 .