Remembering and Retelling Stories in Individual and Collaborative Contexts

Abstract

Collaborative cognition, in which two or more people work together on a cognitive task, may be typical of everyday life, and may even represent an important aspect of everyday cognitive adaptation for older adults. We examined collaborative memory for stories by comparing younger (n = 64) older (n = 66) individuals and dyads with collaborative performance produced by married spouses and stranger dyads. Overall, across four collaborative recall products (two positive and two negative performance indicators), some evidence for our hypothesis of general or selective collaborative effectiveness was observed. Moreover, such evidence was obtained at both an immediate and delayed recall episode. Discussion includes applications, limitations and suggestions for future research.

Figure 1

A schematic of the phases of the experimental design

Figure 2

The number of metastatements made in immediate story recall as a function of age group, collaborative condition and relationship status

Figure 3

Immediate to delayed story recall performance as a function of order

Figure 4

The number of elaborations in immediate and delayed story recall as function of age group and collaborative condition

Figure 5

The difference between reminisced and forgotten items as a function of age group and collaborative condition