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Collaboration in implicit memory: evidence from word-fragment completion and category exemplar generation

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Abstract

Recent studies have begun to investigate the effects of collaboration on explicit tests such as free recall, cued recall, and recognition. In contrast, little is known about the impact of this variable on implicit memory. To bridge this gap, the present study compared the performance of nominal and collaborative groups in two implicit memory tasks—word-fragment completion (WFCT) and category exemplar generation (CEGT). Both the disruption-of-individual-retrieval-strategies and the retrieval blocking hypotheses predicted no significant negative effects of collaboration on repetition priming; in contrast, the retrieval inhibition hypothesis predicted lower priming in collaborative than in nominal groups in both tasks. The results supported the former hypotheses, because priming scores in the WFCT and the CEGT did not differ between collaborative and individual groups. Interestingly; however, a significant collaborative inhibition was obtained in the CEGT (but not in the WFCT) when considering the raw proportions of studied and unstudied exemplars generated. The latter finding might indicate that the performance of collaborative groups can be significantly impaired by the disruption of within-category order resulting from the exposure to the exemplars generated by other group members, even when participants do not explicitly attempt to retrieve the stimuli presented at encoding.

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Notes

  1. The conversations between the members of collaborative groups could not be recorded for technical reasons in the area in which participants were tested, and thus, we cannot judge the extent to which they adopted a turn-taking procedure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Clelia Rossi-Arnaud, Vincenzo Cestari, Valeria Rezende Silva Marques, Giulia Bechi Gabrielli & Pietro Spataro

  2. Cell Biology and Neurobiology Institute, CNR, Rome, Italy

    Vincenzo Cestari

  3. CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brasília, Brazil

    Valeria Rezende Silva Marques

Authors
  1. Clelia Rossi-Arnaud
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  2. Vincenzo Cestari
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  3. Valeria Rezende Silva Marques
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  4. Giulia Bechi Gabrielli
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  5. Pietro Spataro
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Correspondence to Clelia Rossi-Arnaud.

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Rossi-Arnaud, C., Cestari, V., Rezende Silva Marques, V. et al. Collaboration in implicit memory: evidence from word-fragment completion and category exemplar generation. Psychological Research 81, 55–65 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0725-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0725-2

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