Social collaboration, inhibition and context

This experiment investigated whether the exchange of information in social recall situations produced an inhibitory effect comparable to that observed in part-set cuing studies. 112 participants solved anagrams either individually or with a partner, then after a brief interference task recalled the words alone. Following delay participants attempted to recall the words a second time either alone or with a partner. Pairs recalled more words on second recall than those alone. This difference was due to pooling; there was no evidence of collaborative facilitation. Individuals who encoded individually and recalled as a pair forgot more items than those who encoded and recalled individually.