Remembering visual and linguistic common ground in shared history.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Effective communication hinges on shared common ground.
• Shared history, built through past communicative episodes, forms a crucial basis for common ground.
• Accurate memory recall is essential for accessing and utilizing shared history in ongoing communication, yet the underlying memory mechanisms remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how memory for shared history is prioritized during communication.
• To understand the influence of shared experiences and active reference on memory recall.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments employed a referential communication task to establish a shared history episode.
• Following the communication task, participants completed a surprise recognition memory task.
• Experiment 2 further examined the role of differing perspectives in memory effects.

Main Results:

• Information that was both part of the common ground and actively referred to during communication was remembered best.
• Information that was part of the common ground but not referred to was recalled second best.
• Information not shared or referred to was recalled least effectively.
• These memory prioritization effects were consistent regardless of whether the communication partner had a different perspective.

Conclusions:

• Memory for shared history is actively prioritized based on communicative engagement.
• Information actively used and co-present in communication is preferentially retained in memory.
• The findings contribute to understanding the cognitive mechanisms supporting collaborative communication and memory.