Does collaborative remembering reduce false memories?

Abstract

Collaborative remembering refers to recall by groups rather than by an individual. Three experiments investigated whether, relative to individual remembering, collaborative remembering decreased correct recall and false recall using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Participants were first asked to study and recall five lists of 15 words that were each semantically associated with a critical non-presented word. Half the participants recalled the words by themselves, while the remaining half were assigned to pairs and collaboratively recalled the words. In Experiment 1, pairs produced the same number of false or correct words as individuals who were tested alone. In Experiment 2, the interpersonal closeness of the groups was also manipulated: friends and pairs who were not friends were assigned to the collaborative groups. Both friends and non-friends produced fewer false or correct words than individuals. Experiment 3, in which the performance of the individuals and non-friend pairs were compared using a recall test of the same 75 words as the previous experiments, replicated the results of Experiment 2. These results are discussed in terms of the retrieval-strategy disruption.