Memory Accuracy and Errors: the Effects of Collaborative Encoding on Long-Term Retention

Abstract

We examined the effects of collaboration during the occurrence of an event on subsequent memory for that event, giving special attention to the impact of social relation on the duration of these effects. Ninety-six participants were assigned to one of three encoding conditions (working alone, collaborating with a friend or collaborating with an unfamiliar peer) to generate descriptions for visualization using thematic list items as cues. Participants next completed a memory test for the list items immediately and following a 48-h retention interval. Results showed that the cohesiveness of participants’ descriptions was negatively correlated with false recognition errors when collaborating with a friend. Importantly, this relationship was maintained over the 48-h retention interval. Results also showed that collaborating pairs remember the source of explicit lure activations (i.e., the source of related items not presented by the experimenter) over the 48-h retention interval. Thus, social interaction during the occurrence of an event has an influence on subsequent memory reports and the nature of the relationship between collaborating pairs has a sustaining influence as well. The implications of these findings for accounts of memory reconstruction processes are discussed while offering new directions for autobiographical memory research.