Collaborative remembering of emotional autobiographical memories: Implications for emotion regulation and collective memory.

Abstract

People frequently engage in conversation about shared autobiographical events from their lives, particularly those with emotional significance. The pervasiveness of this practice raises the question whether shared memory reconstruction has the power to influence the memory and emotions associated with such events. We developed a novel paradigm that combined the strengths of the methods from autobiographical and collaborative memory research traditions to examine such consequences. We selected a shared, real-life autobiographical event of an exam, and asked students to recall their memory of taking a recent exam where they provided a group and/or personal narrative of this autobiographical event. Students first recalled the event either collaboratively (C) or individually (I), followed by a final individual (I) recall by all. Valence ratings as well as the emotional tone of the narratives converged to show that prior collaborative remembering down-regulated negative emotion and enhanced the positive emotional tone of the memories. The recalled detail in the narratives indicated that at initial recall members of collaborative groups reported fewer internal details than those who recalled alone, and reported more external details in a later recall when working alone. Earlier collaboration also increased collective memory such that more of these details were shared among prior group members in their later individual recall compared with those who did not collaborate before. We discuss the influence of collaborative remembering on shaping memory and emotion for autobiographical events as well as the potential mechanisms that promote collective autobiographical memory. (PsycINFO Database Record

Exploring Cognitive Dissonance on a Ski Mountaineering Traverse: A Personal Narrative of an Expedition to ISHINCA (5530 m) in PERU

“…Whilst these autobiographical memories are long term, accessed from mental stores of information, they still involve significant assigned emotional and personal importance [35,39]. Emotions can change over time, through personal reflection [40], they can still exhibit stability over longer amounts of time [41] and this gives value for personal learning. In addition, as actor, agent and author [36], there are benefits of being able to see and feel the event as well as try to make sense of it that is not possible from the study of biographical accounts [42].…”

Manipulative Impact on the Memory of Socially Significant Events: Results of the Experiment in Student Groups

“…Specialists focus on dialogic (shared, shared) memorisation and mnemonic convergence (commemoration), which adjusts a person's own memories, aligning them with a particular general socio-cultural or historical context. Today, there is compelling empirical evidence of the positive impact of social interactions, which eliminates the shortcomings of individual memory and expands the possibilities of memory [6][7][8]. On the other hand, there are known negative effects that distort real memories, especially in situations of emotional vulnerability: false testimony of witnesses and victims of crimes, "restored" memories of childhood traumas, etc.…”

Total Recall: How Cultural Heritage Communities Use Digital Initiatives and Platforms for Collective Remembering

“…Further complicating this issue is that some memory scholars are more frequently arguing that previous ideas of collective memory are simply becoming obsolete because of this participatory nature of social platforms and networked environments, which has led to a series of new iterations of memory, such as connective memory, memory of the multitudes, multidirectional memory, or collaborative remembering (Hoskins, 2011b, 2011c, 2017; Maswood, Rasmussen, & Rajaram, 2019; Meade, Harris, Van Bergeren, Sutton, & Barnier, 2018; Rothberg, 2009; Silvestri, 2018). One of the loudest of these voices is Hoskins (2009, 2010, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c, 2017), who says while digital experiences may create a ‘connective memory’ among people that does not necessarily mean they share ‘a coherent, deep, and stable social memory’ (Hoskins, 2011c, p. 287).…”