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Dynamic search and working memory in social recall.

Hills, Thomas and Pachur, Thorsten. (2012) Dynamic search and working memory in social recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38 (1). pp. 218-228.

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Abstract

What are the mechanisms underlying search in social memory (e.g., remembering the people one knows)? Do the search mechanisms involve dynamic local-to-global transitions similar to semantic search, and are these transitions governed by the general control of attention, associated with working memory span? To find out, we asked participants to recall individuals from their personal social networks and measured each participant’s working memory capacity. Additionally, participants provided social-category and contact-frequency information about the recalled individuals as well as information about the social proximity among the recalled individuals. On the basis of these data, we tested various computational models of memory search regarding their ability to account for the patterns in which participants recalled from social memory. Although recall patterns showed clustering based on social categories, models assuming dynamic transitions between representations cued by social proximity and frequency information predicted participants’ recall patterns best—no additional explanatory power was gained from social-category information. Moreover, individual differences in the time between transitions were positively correlated with differences in working memory capacity. These results highlight the role of social proximity in structuring social memory and elucidate the role of working memory for maintaining search criteria during search within that structure.
Faculties and Departments:07 Faculty of Psychology > Departement Psychologie > Ehemalige Einheiten Psychologie > Cognitive and Decision Sciences (Hertwig)
UniBasel Contributors:Pachur, Thorsten and Hills, Thomas
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:American Psychological Association
ISSN:0278-7393
e-ISSN:1939-1285
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Language:English
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Last Modified:10 Oct 2017 15:23
Deposited On:09 Mar 2017 07:02

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