Abstract
In everyday life, we remember together often. Surprisingly, research reliably shows costs of collaboration. People remember less in groups than the same number of individuals remember separately. However, there is evidence that some groups are more successful than others, depending on factors such as group relationship and verbal communication strategies. To understand further the characteristics of more successful vs. less successful collaborative groups, we examined whether non-verbal eye gaze behaviour was associated with group outcomes. We used eye tracking glasses to measure how much collaborating dyads looked at each other during collaborative recall, and examined whether individual differences in eye- and face-directed gaze were associated with collaborative performance. Increased eye- and face-directed gaze was associated with higher collaborative recall performance, more explicit strategy use, more post-collaborative benefits, and increased memory overlap. However, it was also associated with pre-collaborative recall, indicating that gaze during collaboration may at least partially reflect pre-existing abilities. This research helps elucidate individual differences that underlie the outcomes of collaborative recall, and suggests that non-verbal communication differentiates more vs. less successful collaborative groups.
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Funding
This research was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Award to Celia Harris (DE150100396), and a Macquarie University Research Development Grant to Celia Harris and Penny Van Bergen. We are grateful for that support.
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CBH and PVB conceived of the project, with consultation from AA particularly on the eye tracking aspects. SH and NM conducted the experiment and scored the recall and eye gaze data, in consultation with CBH. CBH analysed the data and prepared the manuscript in collaboration with all authors.
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Harris, C.B., Van Bergen, P., Harris, S.A. et al. Here’s looking at you: eye gaze and collaborative recall. Psychological Research 86, 769–779 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01533-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01533-2