Who else is listening? The effect of listening in homogeneous/heterogeneous groups on concurrent retrieval

Abstract

Listening to a Speaker selectively retrieving memories of a commonly experienced event was found to result in increased mnemonic performance for mentioned memories, but decreased mnemonic performance for memories related to those mentioned. The former effect is known as retrieval practice, while the latter as socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting. Both effects are found when Listeners are covertly and concurrently retrieving their memories along with the Speakers. Building on a group attention mechanism by which individuals pay more attention to information witnessed in the presence of other in-group members, as opposed to information witnessed in the presence of out-group members, this paper examines how the nature of the audience might impact concurrent retrieval. Participants were either assigned to a homogeneous or heterogeneous audience and were asked to listen to a Speaker selectively remembering previously learned information. After accounting for how well participants knew each other, group homogeneity was found to influence the degree of retrieval practice and socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting.