title: Patterns of interaction-dominant dynamics in individual versus collaborative memory foraging.
abstract: The extent to which a cognitive system's behavioral dynamics fit a power law distribution is considered indicative of the extent to which that system's behavior is driven by multiplicative, interdependent interactions between its components. Here, we investigate the dynamics of memory processes in individual and collaborating participants. Collaborative dyads showed the characteristic collaborative inhibition effect when compared to nominal groups in terms of the number of items retrieved in a categorical recall task, but they also generate qualitatively different patterns of search behavior. To categorize search behavior, we used multi-model inference to compare the degree to which five candidate models (normal, exponential, gamma, lognormal, and Pareto) described the temporal distribution of each individual and dyad's recall processes. All individual and dyad recall processes were best fit by interaction-dominant distributions (lognormal and Pareto), but a clear difference emerged in that individual behavior is more power law, and collaborative behavior was more lognormal. We discuss these results in terms of the cocktail model (Holden et al. in Psychol Rev 116(2):318-342, 2009), which suggests that as a task becomes more constrained (such as through the necessity of collaborating), behavior can shift from power law to lognormal. This shift may reflect a decrease in the dyad's ability to flexibly shift between perseverative and explorative search patterns. Finally, our results suggest that a fruitful avenue for future research would be to investigate the constraints modulating the shift from power law to lognormal behavior in collaborative memory search.
authors: Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA, 95343, USA. jszary@ucmerced.edu.
authors: Janelle
authors: J
authors: Szary
authors: Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA, 95343, USA.
authors: Rick
authors: R
authors: Dale
authors: Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA, 95343, USA.
authors: Christopher T
authors: CT
authors: Kello
authors: Psychology, State University of New York at Oswego, 7060 Route 104, Oswego, NY, 13126-3599, USA.
authors: Theo
authors: T
authors: Rhodes
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Collaborative memory; Collaborative recall; Interaction dominance; Lévy processes; Memory foraging; Multi-model inference; Power laws