Does collaborative remembering serve a directive function? Examining the influence of collaborative remembering on...

Remembering together with others can facilitate memory for previously encountered contents, but can also prompt social contagion with information not previously encountered. This study examined whether these effects of collaborative remembering might serve a directive function and guide subsequent individual decisions. Participants were tested in groups of three and completed an adapted version of a prisoner's dilemma. They initially encountered faces of different players on a screen, who cooperated with them or acted as cheaters. Some of these players were encountered by all three participants, others by single participants only. An interpolated memory test on all players was completed individually or collaboratively. During a final decision game, participants were asked to decide whether to cooperate with each player or not. Three experiments were conducted, which additionally varied encoding, the retention interval before the interpolated memory test, and format and instructions for the interpolated memory test. The results consistently showed adaptive decision making. Participants were more likely to cooperate with players who had previously cooperated with them, relative to both new players and cheaters. Interpolated collaborative remembering had no benefit, however-neither for decisions toward directly encountered players nor for decisions toward players encountered by other participants. Effects of collaborative remembering may thus not serve a directive function and guide future behavior, or at least they may not do so in this adapted version of a prisoner's dilemma.