Abstract
The study of collective memory has burgeoned in the last 20 years, so much so that one can even detect a growing resistance to what some view as the imperialistic march of memory studies across the social sciences (e.g., Berliner 2005; Fabian 1999). Yet despite its clear advance, one area that has remained on the sidelines is psychology. On the one hand, this disinterest is surprising, since memory is of central concern to psychologists. On the other hand, the relative absence of the study of collective memory within the discipline of psychology seems to suit both psychology and other disciplines of the social sciences, for reasons that will be made clear. This paper explores how psychology might step from the sidelines and contribute meaningfully to discussions of collective memory. It reviews aspects of the small literature on the psychology of collective memory and connects this work to the larger scholarly community’s interest in collective memory.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andersson, J., & Rönnberg, J. (1995). Recall suffers from collaboration: Joint recall effects of friendship and task complexity. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 199–211.
Anderson, M. C. & Levy, B. J. (2002). Inhibitory processes and the control of memory retrieval. Trends in Cognitive Science, 6, 299–305.
Anderson, M. C., Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (1994). Remembering can cause forgetting: Retrieval dynamics in long-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 20, 1063–1087.
Assmann, A. (1995a). Errinnerungsrdume. Formen und Wandlungen des kulturen Geddchtnisses. Munich, Germany: Beck.
Assmann, J. (1995b). Collective memory and cultural identity. New German Critique, 65, 125–133.
Aydede, M., & Robbins, P. (Eds.). (2008). Cambridge handbook of situated cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Barnier, A. J., Hung, L., & Conway, M. A. (2004). Retrieval-induced forgetting of emotional and unemotional autobiographical memories. Cognition & Emotion, 18, 457–477.
Bartlett, F. (1993). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and nature: A necessary unity (Advances in systems theory, complexity, and the human sciences). New Jersey: Hampton Press.
Beach, K. (1993). Becoming a bartender: the role of external memory cues in a work-directed educational activity. Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, 7(3), 191–204.
Berliner, H. (2005). The abuses of memory: reflections on the memory boom in anthropology. Anthropology Quarterly, 78, 197–211.
Bodnar, J. (1992). Remaking America: Public memory, commemoration, and patriotism in the twentieth century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Braun, K. A., Ellis, R., & Loftus, E. F. (2002). Make my memory: how advertising can change our memories of the past. Psychology and Marketing, 19, 1–23.
Brown, A., Coman, A. & Hirst, W. (2009). Expertise and the formation of collective memory. Social Psychology, 40, 118–128.
Carley, K. M. (1995). Communication technologies and their effect on cultural homogeneity, consensus, and the diffusion of new ideas. Sociological Perspectives, 38(4), 547–571.
Chase, W. G., & Ericsson, K. A. (1982). Skill and working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation, (Vol. 16, pp. 1–58). New York: Academic Press.
Chase, W. G., & Simon, H. A. (1973). The mind's eye in chess. In W. G. Chase (Ed.), Visual information processing (pp. 215–281). New York: Academic Press.
Ciranni, M. A., & Shimamura, A. P. (1999). Retrieval-induced forgetting in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 25, 1403–1414.
Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). “The extended mind.” Analysis, 58, 10–23.
Coman, A, Manier, D. & Hirst, W. (2009). Forgetting the unforgettable: socially shared retrieval induced forgetting of September 11 memories. Psychological Science.
Cuc, A., Ozuru, Y., Manier, D., & Hirst, W. (2006). The transformation of collective memories: studies of family recounting. Memory & Cognition, 34, 752–762.
Cuc, A., Koppel, J., & Hirst, W. (2007). Silence is not golden: a case for socially-shared retrieval-induced forgetting. Psychological Science, 18(2007), 727–737.
Dudukovic, N. M., Marsh, E. J., & Tversky, B. (2004). Telling a story or telling it straight: The effects of entertaining versus accurate retellings on memory. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 125–143.
Epstein, J. M. (2006). Generative social science: studies in agent-based computational modeling. Princeton University Press.
Ericsson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102, 211–245.
Fabian, J. (1999). Remembering the other: knowledge and recognition in the exploration of Central Africa. Critical Inquiry, 26, 49–69.
Fentress, J., & Wickham, C. (1992). Social memory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Fiore, S. M., & Sales, E. (Eds.). (2007). Toward a science of distributed learning. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Fivush, R., & Nelson, K. (2004). Culture and language in the emergence of autobiographical memory. Psychological Science, 15, 573–577.
Foucault, M. (1977). Nietzsche, genealogy, history. In D. Bouchard (Ed.), Language, counter-memory, practice: Selected essays and interviews. D. Bouchard, & S. Simon trans. New York: Cornell University Press.
Friedkin, N. (1998). A structural theory of social influence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gabbert, F., Memon, A., & Allan, K. (2003). Memory conformity: can eyewitnesses influence each other’s memory for an event? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 533–543.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Givón, T. (2005). Context as other minds. The pragmatics of sociality, cognition and communication. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hirst, W., & Manier, D. (1996). Social influences on remembering. In D. Rubin (Ed.), Remembering the past (pp. 271–290). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hirst, W. & Manier, D. (2008). Towards a psychology of collective memory. Memory, 16, 183–200.
Hirst, W., Manier, D., & Apetroaia, I. (1997). The social construction of the remembered self: Family recounting. In J. G. Snodgras & R. L. Thompson (Eds.), The self across psychology. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences.
Kansteiner, W. (2002). Finding meaning in memory: a methodological critique of collective memory studies. History and Theory, 41, 179–197.
Lea, M. R., & Nicoll, K. (Eds.), (2002). Distributed learning: Social and cultural approaches to practice. New York: Routledge.
Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lindsay, D. S., Hagen, L., Read, J. D., Wade, K. A., & Garry, M. (2004). True photographs and false memories. Psychological Science, 15, 149–154.
Loftus, E. F. (1993). The reality of repressed memories. American Psychologist, 48, 518–537.
Marsh, E. J. (2007). Retelling is not the same as recalling: implications for memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 16–20.
Mazzoni, G. A. L., Loftus, E. F., & Kirsch, I. (2001). Changing beliefs about implausible autobiographical events: a little plausibility goes a long way. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 7, 51–59.
Meade, M. L., & Roediger, H. L. (2002). Explorations in the social cognition of memory. Memory & Cognition, 30, 995–1009.
Mehl, M. R., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2003). The social dynamics of a cultural upheaval: Social interactions surrounding September 11, 2001. Psychological Science, 14, 579–585.
Middleton, D., & Edwards, D. (Eds.), (1990). Collective remembering. London: Sage.
Miller, P. J. (1994). Narrative practices: Their role in socialization and self-construction. In U. Neisser & R. Fivush (Eds.), The remembering self: Construction and accuracy in the self-narrative (pp. 158–179). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Newman, M. E. J, Barabasi, A. L., & Watts, D. J. (Eds.), (1996). The structure and dynamics of complex networks. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Olick, J. K. (1999). Collective memory: the two cultures. Sociological Theory, 7, 333–348.
Pasupathi, M., Stallworth, L. M., & Murdoch, K. (1998). How what we tell becomes what we know: listener effects on memory for narratives. Discourse Processes, 26, 1–25.
Roediger, H. L, III, Meade, M. L., & Bergman, E. T. (2001). Social contagion of memory. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 8, 365–371.
Sacks, H. & Shegloff, E. A. & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematic for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696–735.
Salancik, G. R., & Pfeffer, J. (1978). A social information processing approach to job attitudes and task design. Administrative Science Quarterly, 23, 224–253.
Saunders, J., & MacLeod, M. D. (2002). New evidence on the suggestibility of memory: the role of retrieval-induced forgetting in misinformation effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 127–142.
Schacter, D. L. (2001). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. NY: Houghton Mifflin.
Schuman, H., Rieger, C., & Gaidys, V. (1994). Collective memories in the United States and Lithuania. In N. Schwarz & S. Sudman (Eds.), Autobiographical memory and the validity of retrospective reports (pp. 313–333). New York: Springer.
Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining culture: A naturalistic approach. Cambridge: Blackwell.
Stasser, G., & Titus, W. (1985). Pooling of unshared information in group decision making: biased information sampling during discussion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 81–93.
Watts, D. J. (2004). Six degrees: The science of a connected age. NY: Norton.
Weldon, M. S. (2001) Remembering as a social process. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 10). New York: Academic Press.
Wertsch, J. (2002). Voices of collective remembering. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, R. A. (2005). Collective memory, group minds, and the extended mind thesis. Cognitive Processing, 6, 227–236.
Wilson, R. A., & Clark, A. (2008). How to situate cognition: Letting nature takes its course. In P. Robin & M. Aydede (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of situated cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wright, D. B., Self, G., & Justice, C. (2000). Memory conformity: Exploring the misinformation effects when presented by another person. British Journal of Psychology, 91, 189–202.
Zerubavel, E. (2006). The elephant in the room: Silence and denial in everyday life. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The first three authors contributed equally to this paper. The order in which they are listed reflects the throw of a die.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Coman, A., Brown, A.D., Koppel, J. et al. Collective Memory from a Psychological Perspective. Int J Polit Cult Soc 22, 125–141 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-009-9057-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-009-9057-9