Collaborative Remembering: When Can Remembering With Others Be Beneficial?

Experimental memory research has traditionally focused on the individual, and viewed social influence as a source of error or inhibition. However, in everyday life, remembering is often a social activity, and theories from philosophy and psychology predict benefits of shared remembering. In a series of studies, both experimental and more qualitative, we attempted to bridge this gap by examining the effects of collaboration on memory in a variety of situations and in a variety of groups. We discuss our results in terms of a functional view of collaborative remembering, and consider when and in what ways remembering with others might help or hinder memory.