title: Mnemonic convergence in social networks: The emergent properties of cognition at a collective level.
abstract: The development of shared memories, beliefs, and norms is a fundamental characteristic of human communities. These emergent outcomes are thought to occur owing to a dynamic system of information sharing and memory updating, which fundamentally depends on communication. Here we report results on the formation of collective memories in laboratory-created communities. We manipulated conversational network structure in a series of real-time, computer-mediated interactions in fourteen 10-member communities. The results show that mnemonic convergence, measured as the degree of overlap among community members' memories, is influenced by both individual-level information-processing phenomena and by the conversational social network structure created during conversational recall. By studying laboratory-created social networks, we show how large-scale social phenomena (i.e., collective memory) can emerge out of microlevel local dynamics (i.e., mnemonic reinforcement and suppression effects). The social-interactionist approach proposed herein points to optimal strategies for spreading information in social networks and provides a framework for measuring and forging collective memories in communities of individuals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; acoman@princeton.edu.
authors.forename: Alin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544;
authors.forename: Ida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Momennejad
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222.
authors.forename: Rae D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Drach
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544;
authors.forename: Andra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Geana
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D060756:Social Networking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: collective memories; emergent phenomena; mnemonic reinforcement effect; social networks; socially-shared retrieval-induced forgetting