Memory conformity and the perceived accuracy of self versus other

Abstract

Here, we demonstrate that the decision to conform to another person's memory involves a strategic trade-off that balances the accuracy of one's own memory against that of another person. We showed participants three household scenes, one for 30 s, one for 60 s, and one for 120 s. Half were told that they would encode each scene for half as long as their virtual partner, and half were told that they would encode each scene for twice as long as their virtual partner. On a subsequent two-alternative-forced choice (2AFC) memory test, the simulated answer of the partner (accurate, errant, or no response) was shown before participants responded. Conformity to the partner's responses was significantly enhanced for the 30-s versus the 60-and 120-s scenes. This pattern, however, was present only in the group who believed that they had encoded each scene for half as long as their partner, even though the short-duration scene had the lowest baseline 2AFC accuracy in both groups and was also subjectively rated as the least memorable by both groups. Our reliance on other people's memory is therefore dynamically and strategically adjusted according to knowledge of the conditions under which we and other people have acquired different memories.

Socio-sexuality and episodic memory function in women: further evidence of an adaptive “mating mode”

“…Although the face sex effect demonstrates that performance is not fully at floor across all conditions, it is possible that the absence of sexual dimorphism effects within each gender could be due to a floor effect. While we fully acknowledge this possibility, the absence of sexual dimorphism effects at the level of the group is consistent with our earlier findings (Allan et al, 2012b). That is, the enhancing effect of sexually dimorphic cues in men upon women's memory should systematically vary according to a woman's mating strategy.…”

“…In sum, our present findings extend the findings of three prior studies from our lab, one employing face stimuli (Allan et al, 2012b) and two employing voice stimuli (Smith et al, 2012). Nevertheless, because the present findings are novel, it would seem prudent to verify that they can be replicated, and so this was the aim of Experiment 2.…”

“…Anderson et al also reported that the intrasex bias was not itself modulated according to whether women were currently in a fertile (i.e., peri-ovulatory) or nonfertile phase of their menstrual cycle. These findings are highly intriguing, when considered alongside our own results here and in our prior studies (Allan et al, 2012b;Smith et al, 2012). It would appear that women may have an enhanced spatial memory for other attractive versus unattractive women that is functionally decoupled from their mating strategy, at least so far as this is indexed by such measures as their sociosexual orientation.…”

“…Instead, as was noted above, the available data already suggest that preference is not sufficient to trigger the memory bias. For example, we observed (Allan et al, 2012b) that women significantly preferred feminized versus masculinized women's faces, but this did not lead to enhanced recognition of objects paired with feminized women's faces. Similarly, we also observed (Allan et al, 2012a) that men significantly preferred feminized to masculinized women's faces, but this preference did not trigger enhanced memory for objects paired with feminized women's faces.…”

“…In a prior article (Allan et al, 2012b), we developed the initial arguments for a mating mode shaped by selection pressure acting upon women's ability to retain information from encounters with desirable men. We pointed out that this information may have considerable adaptive value if it improves women's ability to judge how specific men are likely to behave in particular future relationship contexts.…”