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The Role of Social Identity in Memory Integration

Boeltzig, Marius LU (2021) PSYP01 20211
Department of Psychology
Abstract
An adaptive memory system has to support both the encoding of individual episodes as well as generalization and inference across several episodes. The latter of these two goals is achieved by memory integration in which a memory representation is updated to accommodate new information. However, the circumstances leading to either separate encoding or generalization are still unknown. Building on literature implicating social identity in memory processes, this investigation for the first time examined social identity as a moderating factor in that trade-off. In Experiment 1, a common memory integration paradigm was adapted to investigate the influence of ingroup and outgroup source personas that presented one of two overlapping episodes on... (More)
An adaptive memory system has to support both the encoding of individual episodes as well as generalization and inference across several episodes. The latter of these two goals is achieved by memory integration in which a memory representation is updated to accommodate new information. However, the circumstances leading to either separate encoding or generalization are still unknown. Building on literature implicating social identity in memory processes, this investigation for the first time examined social identity as a moderating factor in that trade-off. In Experiment 1, a common memory integration paradigm was adapted to investigate the influence of ingroup and outgroup source personas that presented one of two overlapping episodes on memory integration. While finding the expected ingroup advantage for memory of individual episodes, there was a surprising outgroup advantage for inferences across episodes. Experiment 2 investigated the influence of social identity in an implicit memory integration paradigm to examine whether the value attached to social identity symbols spreads to neutral stimuli through memory integration. While this mechanism was not evident on a group level, first signs of a behavioral correlate were found in that the extent of decision bias partly depended on the importance of the social identity and the evaluation of the social symbols. In conclusion, this investigation underlines the importance of considering social identity in memory integration and offers implications
for the literature on collective memory as well as political discourse. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Boeltzig, Marius LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSYP01 20211
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
memory integration, social contagion, memory conformity, social identity, inference, episodic memory
language
English
id
9058389
date added to LUP
2021-06-28 07:54:56
date last changed
2021-06-28 07:54:56
@misc{9058389,
  abstract     = {{An adaptive memory system has to support both the encoding of individual episodes as well as generalization and inference across several episodes. The latter of these two goals is achieved by memory integration in which a memory representation is updated to accommodate new information. However, the circumstances leading to either separate encoding or generalization are still unknown. Building on literature implicating social identity in memory processes, this investigation for the first time examined social identity as a moderating factor in that trade-off. In Experiment 1, a common memory integration paradigm was adapted to investigate the influence of ingroup and outgroup source personas that presented one of two overlapping episodes on memory integration. While finding the expected ingroup advantage for memory of individual episodes, there was a surprising outgroup advantage for inferences across episodes. Experiment 2 investigated the influence of social identity in an implicit memory integration paradigm to examine whether the value attached to social identity symbols spreads to neutral stimuli through memory integration. While this mechanism was not evident on a group level, first signs of a behavioral correlate were found in that the extent of decision bias partly depended on the importance of the social identity and the evaluation of the social symbols. In conclusion, this investigation underlines the importance of considering social identity in memory integration and offers implications
for the literature on collective memory as well as political discourse.}},
  author       = {{Boeltzig, Marius}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Role of Social Identity in Memory Integration}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}