Conversational Memory The Effects of Time, Recall, Mode, and Memory Expectancies on Remembrances of Natural Conversations

Abstract

Participants took part in a two-stage investigation examining the changes in memory for conversation over time. The impact of memory expectancy and mode of recall were also examined. Participants could recall only about 10% of their conversations immediately after the conversations. One month later this fipre had dropped to 4%. Examination of recall protocols revealed that after a one month delay, participants recalledless content and reported more descriptive statements, made more inferences, and were less accurate than when they had recalled immediately. In addition, expectancies about memory and mode used to report recollections affected the amount and type of information reported. Finally, participants recalled more of their partner's contributions to the conversations than their own contributions. M EMORY is an integral component of communicative ability. To converse appropriately people must minimally rely on their memory for linguistic rules and grammars as well as topical information. Moreover, competent communicators must retrieve memories about specific events that occurred with particular others in order to devise trajectories for the likely directions that their conversations may take (Stafford & Daly, 1984).

The influence of reference acceptance and reuse on conversational memory traces.

“…In any event, these results shed light on the role of self-and partner-production in conversational memory, as the evidence on this point is somewhat mixed (see Hjelmquist, 1984;Jarvella & Collas, 1974, who showed that self-produced information is remembered better than partner-produced information; see also Stafford, Burggraf, & Sharkey, 1987;Stafford & Daly, 1984, who reported the contrary). Specifically, they show that both self-and partner-production contribute to shaping conversational memory for the references produced during an interaction, as partner-production reinforces the accessibility in memory of information which did not benefit from the self-production benefit.…”

Bystander Intervention in Cyberbullying

“…Although research suggests that recall of past events remains relatively consistent over time (e.g., Baddley, 1990;Ross & Conway, 1986), an experimental design allows for the same hypotheses to be examined without relying on the participants' memory of a past event. Additionally, memory distortion may have occurred, such that events that took place after the bullying episode (e.g., whether or not someone else intervened) may have influenced participants' responses (e.g., Stafford & Daly, 1984).…”

Language crimes and the cognitive interview: testing its efficacy in retrieving a conversational event

“…Hjelmquist & Gidlund, 1985;Miller, deWinstanley, & Carey, 1996;Ross & Sicoly, 1979;Stafford, Burggraf, & Sharkey, 1987;Stafford & Daly, 1984;Stafford, Waldron, & Infield, 1989). Concerning the forensic context, surprisingly, the study of the accuracy and completeness of witnesses' memory for criminal conversations has been attempted occasionally only (Neisser, 1981;Pezdek & Prull, 1993).…”