Abstract
People in romantic relationships can develop shared memory systems by pooling their cognitive resources, allowing each person access to more information but with less cognitive effort. Research examining such memory systems in romantic couples largely focuses on remembering word lists or performing lab-based tasks, but these types of activities do not capture the processes underlying couples’ transactive memory systems, and may not be representative of the ways in which romantic couples use their shared memory systems in everyday life. We adapted an existing measure of transactive memory systems for use with romantic couples (TMSS-C), and conducted an initial validation study. In total, 397 participants who each identified as being a member of a romantic relationship of at least 3 months duration completed the study. The data provided a good fit to the anticipated three-factor structure of the components of couples’ transactive memory systems (specialization, credibility and coordination), and there was reasonable evidence of both convergent and divergent validity, as well as strong evidence of test–retest reliability across a 2-week period. The TMSS-C provides a valuable tool that can quickly and easily capture the underlying components of romantic couples’ transactive memory systems. It has potential to help us better understand this intriguing feature of romantic relationships, and how shared memory systems might be associated with other important features of romantic relationships.
Highlights
Romantic relationships confer many benefits to their members; for instance, people in romantic relationships experience boosts to self-esteem, life satisfaction and happiness (Dush and Amato, 2005), and report experiencing benefits such as social and emotional support, companionship, sexual gratification, intimacy, and security (Sedikides et al, 1994)
The results provide support for the initial validation of the TMSS-C as a measure of the components of romantic couples’ transactive memory systems
Further research could recruit both members of existing couples only, and examine data at the dyad level to further establish the validity of the TMSS-C
Summary
Romantic relationships confer many benefits to their members; for instance, people in romantic relationships experience boosts to self-esteem, life satisfaction and happiness (Dush and Amato, 2005), and report experiencing benefits such as social and emotional support, companionship, sexual gratification, intimacy, and security (Sedikides et al, 1994). People in romantic relationships might develop shared transactive memory systems (Wegner et al, 1985; see Harris et al, 2014). Transactive memory systems scale for couples each other’s expertise; people might share transactive memory systems within intimate relationships, family groups, friendships and even work groups (Wegner et al, 1985; Wegner, 1987; Hollingshead, 1998a,b, 2000). Wegner et al (1991) go so far as to suggest that the transactive memory system is so beneficial to couple’s daily lives, that if the relationship ends, the loss of the shared transactive memory system may be at least partly responsible for a period of poor functioning and confusion following the relationship breakdown. Harris et al (2014) suggest that a close lag in cognitive decline found in elderly couples could be due to the deterioration of the couples’ shared memory system; if one member of the memory system experiences a cognitive decline, it affects the couple’s shared memory system, and the other member’s memory suffers too
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