TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential Effects of Pressure on Social Contagion of Memory
AU - Andrews-Todd, Jessica
AU - Salovich, Nikita A.
AU - Rapp, David N.
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant DGE-0824162 awarded to the first author. We thank Carlie Cope and Bethany Tuten for their help with data collection
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Psychological Association
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Collaboration can support performance on a variety of tasks, but recent projects have indicated that group collaborations can also be associated with memory decrements. For example, when people discuss ideas, any shared inaccurate information can be used by group members to complete subsequent tasks. Across two experiments, we examined whether this social contagion is influenced by performance pressures that regularly emerge during group interactions. In Experiment 1, participants under individual-directed pressure, goal-directed pressure, or control conditions studied word lists before completing a collaborative recall with a confederate partner who occasionally recalled incorrect words. We examined whether partnerproduced inaccuracies contaminated participants’ memories for the list contents on a subsequent individual recall. Goal-directed pressure, focused on monitoring partner accuracy, facilitated subsequent individual recall, as demonstrated by reduced reproductions of partner-generated inaccuracies. In contrast, individualdirected pressure, focused on appearing competent, resulted in greater use of those inaccuracies. Experiment 2 ruled out that the benefits associated with goal-directed pressure were solely due to warning participants about the possibility of social contagion. These results demonstrate that different instantiations of pressure can help or hinder memory-related performance in collaborative settings. Under the right conditions, pressure can help overcome the effects of exposure to inaccurate information
AB - Collaboration can support performance on a variety of tasks, but recent projects have indicated that group collaborations can also be associated with memory decrements. For example, when people discuss ideas, any shared inaccurate information can be used by group members to complete subsequent tasks. Across two experiments, we examined whether this social contagion is influenced by performance pressures that regularly emerge during group interactions. In Experiment 1, participants under individual-directed pressure, goal-directed pressure, or control conditions studied word lists before completing a collaborative recall with a confederate partner who occasionally recalled incorrect words. We examined whether partnerproduced inaccuracies contaminated participants’ memories for the list contents on a subsequent individual recall. Goal-directed pressure, focused on monitoring partner accuracy, facilitated subsequent individual recall, as demonstrated by reduced reproductions of partner-generated inaccuracies. In contrast, individualdirected pressure, focused on appearing competent, resulted in greater use of those inaccuracies. Experiment 2 ruled out that the benefits associated with goal-directed pressure were solely due to warning participants about the possibility of social contagion. These results demonstrate that different instantiations of pressure can help or hinder memory-related performance in collaborative settings. Under the right conditions, pressure can help overcome the effects of exposure to inaccurate information
KW - False memory
KW - Memory
KW - Performance pressure
KW - Social contagion of memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112125564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85112125564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/xap0000346
DO - 10.1037/xap0000346
M3 - Article
C2 - 33749298
AN - SCOPUS:85112125564
VL - 27
SP - 258
EP - 275
JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied
JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied
SN - 1076-898X
IS - 2
ER -