The effects of social pressure on false memories

False memory for associated word lists in individuals and collaborating groups

“…These results show that collaborating groups are not influenced by the false recall of individuals in the same way as in social contagion studies (Reysen, 2007;Roediger et al, 2001). In those studies, individuals are exposed to the false recall of others, and they incorporate this false recall into their individual recall.…”

“…We expected that collaborating groups would remember more presented words than would individuals but fewer presented words than would nominal groups. Recall of nonpresented critical words could show a social contagion effect (e.g., Reysen, 2007;Roediger et al, 2001). If one individual falsely recalls a nonpresented critical word, he or she may expose the group to that nonpresented target and influence the group to produce it in recall.…”

“…However, nominal and actual groups did not differ in the number of nonpresented critical words they recalled. r In the social contagion studies (Reysen, 2007;Roediger et al, 2001) and in Basden and Basden's studies (Basden et al, 1997;Basden et al, 2000;Basden et al, 1998), there was no collaboration, in the sense that individuals f did not discuss recall but were exposed to the recall of other group members. In studies of collaborative recall in which groups discuss and agree upon their recall, nomit nal groups recall more than do collaborating groups, but collaborating groups recall more than do individuals (Finlay, Hitch, & Meudell, 2000;Weldon & Bellinger, 1997).…”

When two is too many: Collaborative encoding impairs memory

“…Second, the recollection of the discussion partner can also influence the participant's memory for the event. Misinformation recalled by the discussion partner is often incorporated into the participant's final individual recall (see, e.g., B. H. Basden, Reysen, & Basden, 2002;French, Garry, & Mori, 2008;Gabbert, Memon, & Wright, 2006;Meade & Roediger, 2002;Roediger, Meade, & Bergman, 2001), especially when the individual feels pressure to conform to the discussion partner's responses (Reysen, 2007). This is true even when the information has been recalled correctly by the participant earlier in the experiment (Gabbert, Memon, Allan, & Wright, 2004).…”

Social processing improves recall performance

“…Some of these studies have found that adding a social context to more traditional memory paradigms can lead to different results than those obtained using methods in which participants are asked to remember information on their own (e.g., Reysen, 2007). The explanations for these results have been as varied as the methods used to obtain them.…”