Memory, metamemory, and social cues: between conformity and resistance

Zawadzka, K. ORCID: 0000-0003-0214-1184, Krogulska, A., Button, R., Higham, P.A. and Hanczakowski, M., 2016. Memory, metamemory, and social cues: between conformity and resistance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145 (2), pp. 181-199. ISSN 0096-3445

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Abstract

When presented with responses of another person, people incorporate these responses into memory reports: a finding termed memory conformity. Research on memory conformity in recognition reveals that people rely on external social cues to guide their memory responses when their own ability to respond is at chance. In this way, conforming to a reliable source boosts recognition performance but conforming to a random source does not impair it. In the present study we assessed whether people would conform indiscriminately to reliable and unreliable (random) sources when they are given the opportunity to exercise metamemory control over their responding by withholding answers in a recognition test. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found the pattern of memory conformity to reliable and unreliable sources in two variants of a free-report recognition test, yet at the same time the provision of external cues did not affect the rate of response withholding. In Experiment 3, we provided participants with initial feedback on their recognition decisions, facilitating the discrimination between the reliable and unreliable source. This led to the reduction of memory conformity to the unreliable source, and at the same time modulated metamemory decisions concerning response withholding: participants displayed metamemory conformity to the reliable source, volunteering more responses in
their memory report, and metamemory resistance to the random source, withholding more responses from the memory report. Together, the results show how metamemory decisions dissociate various types of memory conformity and that memory and metamemory decisions can be independent of each other.

Item Type:	Journal article
Alternative Title:	Memory, metamemory, and social cues [running head]
Publication Title:	Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Creators:	Zawadzka, K., Krogulska, A., Button, R., Higham, P.A. and Hanczakowski, M.
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
Place of Publication:	Washington DC, United States
Date:	February 2016
Volume:	145
Number:	2
ISSN:	0096-3445
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 10:00
Last Modified:	27 Apr 2022 12:48
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6235

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