“Going episodic”: collaborative inhibition and facilitation when long-married couples remember together

Abstract

Two complementary approaches to the study of collaborative remembering have produced contrasting results. In the experimental “collaborative recall” approach within cognitive psychology, collaborative remembering typically results in ‘collaborative inhibition’: laboratory groups recall fewer items than their estimated potential. In the cognitive ageing approach, collaborative remembering with a partner or spouse may provide cuing and support to benefit older adults’ performance on everyday memory tasks. To combine the value of experimental and cognitive ageing approaches, we tested the effects of collaborative remembering in older, long-married couples who recalled a non-personal word list and a personal semantic list of shared trips. We scored amount recalled as well as the kinds of details remembered. We found evidence for collaborative inhibition across both tasks when scored strictly as number of list items recalled. However, we found collaborative facilitation of specific episodic details on the personal semantic list, details which were not strictly required for the completion of the task. In fact, there was a trade-off between recall of specific episodic details and number of trips recalled during collaboration. We discuss these results in terms of the functions of shared remembering and what constitutes memory success, particularly for intimate groups and for older adults.

Features of Successful and Unsuccessful Collaborative Memory Conversations in Long‐Married Couples

“…This heterogeneity adds complexity and nuance to predictions about where we might expect to find collaborative benefits and effective transactive memory systems. To some extent, such benefits have proved relatively elusive (Barnier et al., ; Harris et al., ; ), at least when recall output is measured in terms of amount recalled. It appears that shared experiences and intimacy are necessary but not sufficient for collaborative benefits to emerge, which may help to explain why previous research on the effects of collaboration in intimate groups versus strangers has yielded mixed results, and generalized benefits for intimate groups have been difficult to identify (Andersson & Rönnberg, , ; Gould et al., ; Harris et al., ; Wegner et al., ).…”

“…The experimenter told them to “Try to make your list as long as possible.” Participants were given 2 min to recall as many names as they could, and the experimenter instructed them to keep trying to recall additional names until 2 min had elapsed. Session times were based on prior research in which we have conducted these kinds of recall tasks with older adults (e.g., Harris et al., , ) and were designed to be sufficient for recall to proceed until blocked while constraining the overall length of the experimental session.…”

“…However, collaborative recall experiments typically have focused on groups of strangers and not groups in which benefits of shared remembering might be expected, such as intimate groups in which group members know each other well and have a long-shared history (Barnier, Klein, et al, 2018;Harris, Keil, Sutton, Barnier, & McIlwain, 2011). In the current research, motivated by transactive memory theory's emphasis on intimacy and effective communication as leading to memory benefits, we extended the robust methodology of collaborative recall to focus on intimate groups and their communication styles, examining the features of successful collaboration in long-married older couples (see also Harris, Barnier, Sutton, Keil, & Dixon, 2017;Harris, Barnier, et al, 2014;Harris, Rasmussen, et al, 2014) According to transactive memory theory, as members of groups become familiar with each other and experience events together, they can develop an efficient system for sharing the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information (Barnier, Klein, et al, 2018;Wegner et al, 1985;Wegner, 1987). Wegner suggested that such systems rely on the individual memory systems of the group members, an accurate shared meta-knowledge about "who knows what," and effective communication or "transactions" which allow the group as a whole to access the information stored by all individuals (Wegner, 1987;Wegner et al, 1985).…”

“…However, collaborative recall experiments typically have focused on groups of strangers and not groups in which benefits of shared remembering might be expected, such as intimate groups in which group members know each other well and have a long‐shared history (Barnier, Klein, et al., ; Harris, Keil, Sutton, Barnier, & McIlwain, ). In the current research, motivated by transactive memory theory's emphasis on intimacy and effective communication as leading to memory benefits, we extended the robust methodology of collaborative recall to focus on intimate groups and their communication styles, examining the features of successful collaboration in long‐married older couples (see also Harris, Barnier, Sutton, Keil, & Dixon, ; Harris, Barnier, et al., ; Harris, Rasmussen, et al., )…”

“…Two aspects of transactive memory theory are critical in motivating the current research. First, transactive memory systems develop with time and with group experience: the longer that individuals have been members of a group, and the more experienced the group is at sharing memories, the more effective and accurate their transactive memory system is likely to be (Barnier et al., ; Harris et al., , ). Second, transactive memory systems are only as good as the communication strategies of their members (Harris et al., ).…”