Convergence on Collective Memories: Central Speakers and Distributed Remembering

A primary interest in the psychological study of collective memory concerns the sociocognitive processes by which Central Speakers-politicians, journalists, and other public voices-may reshape the memory of groups of listeners. In 2 experiments, we examine how (a) Central Speakers may induce shared...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. General 2020-03, Vol.149 (3), p.461-481
Main Authors: Yamashiro, Jeremy K., Hirst, William
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audiences
Collective Memory
Female
Forgetting
Human
Ingroup Outgroup
Male
Membership
Motivation
Rationality
Retention
Speakers
Test Construction
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Summary:A primary interest in the psychological study of collective memory concerns the sociocognitive processes by which Central Speakers-politicians, journalists, and other public voices-may reshape the memory of groups of listeners. In 2 experiments, we examine how (a) Central Speakers may induce shared practice effects and socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting (SSRIF) for related but unmentioned items in a group of listeners, (b) how communicational remembering along a serial transmission chain can moderate this initial mnemonic influence, and (c) how listeners' relational motives toward the Central Speaker, operationalized as perceived social group membership, impact both (a) and (b). Experiment 1 shows that a Central Speaker may induce both SSRIF and shared practice effects in a group of listeners, and that, relative to noncommunicating nominal groups, communicational remembering in a looped serial transmission chain amplifies the relative inaccessibility of related but unmentioned items. In Experiment 2, we show that the Central Speaker's perceived group membership moderates the effects of subsequent communicational remembering. When ingroup, communicational remembering amplifies the Central Speaker's SSRIF, when outgroup, subsequent communicational remembering attenuates it.
ISSN:0096-3445
1939-2222
DOI:10.1037/xge0000656