Social contagion of memory and the role of self-initiated relative judgments

Two experiments examined the role of spontaneous relative judgments within the social contagion of memory paradigm (Roediger, Meade, & Bergman, 2001). Participants viewed household scenes (for short or long durations) in collaboration with a confederate (with low, average, or superior memory ability) who falsely recalled incorrect items as having occurred in the scenes. Of interest was whether or not participants would spontaneously evaluate the state of their own memory relative to the state of the confederate's memory when remembering suggested information. Participant responses on a metacognitive questionnaire demonstrated that participants were aware of their own memory ability relative to the memory ability of their partner. Interestingly, this information influenced participants' remember responses on the recall test only when they felt their own memory was relatively poor. Participants make self-initiated, relative judgments of memory when working with others on a memory test, and these judgments are driven by metacognitive differences in remember responses. The results highlight the importance of metacognition in understanding relative judgments in social memory.