TY - JOUR
T1 - Social contagion of autobiographical memories
AU - Harris, Celia B.
AU - Barnier, Amanda J.
AU - Sutton, John
AU - Khan, Tasneem
PY - 2017/9
Y1 - 2017/9
N2 - We modified the social contagion of memory paradigm to track whether details mentioned during social interaction are transmitted to later individual recall for personal, autobiographical memories. Participants recalled four autobiographical events. A week later, participants described these events to a confederate, who described scripted "memories." They then summarised each other's recall. When summarising participants' memories, confederates inserted two specific new details. Finally, participants recalled the events individually. We scored final individual recall for suggested contagion (new details inserted by confederates) and unsuggested contagion (new details consistent with confederates' scripted memories but not suggested). We found social contagion for autobiographical memories: at final recall, 30% of participants recalled at least one suggested detail. Notably, at final recall, 90% of participants recalled at least one unsuggested detail from confederates' scripted memories. Thus, social interaction, even if fairly minimal, can result in the transmission of specific details into memory for personal, autobiographical events.
AB - We modified the social contagion of memory paradigm to track whether details mentioned during social interaction are transmitted to later individual recall for personal, autobiographical memories. Participants recalled four autobiographical events. A week later, participants described these events to a confederate, who described scripted "memories." They then summarised each other's recall. When summarising participants' memories, confederates inserted two specific new details. Finally, participants recalled the events individually. We scored final individual recall for suggested contagion (new details inserted by confederates) and unsuggested contagion (new details consistent with confederates' scripted memories but not suggested). We found social contagion for autobiographical memories: at final recall, 30% of participants recalled at least one suggested detail. Notably, at final recall, 90% of participants recalled at least one unsuggested detail from confederates' scripted memories. Thus, social interaction, even if fairly minimal, can result in the transmission of specific details into memory for personal, autobiographical events.
KW - social contagion
KW - autobiographical memory
KW - social influence
KW - social memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027456851&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE150100396
U2 - 10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.07.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.07.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85027456851
SN - 2211-3681
VL - 6
SP - 319
EP - 327
JO - Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
JF - Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
IS - 3
ER -