Costs and benefits of collaborative remembering

Collaborative inhibition, the poorer memory performance of collaborative groups as compared with nominal (noninteracting) groups was measured in the free recall of categorized lists. In Experiment 1, collaborative inhibition was present in four-person groups, but not in pairs of two-person groups, where each was compared with performance in four-person nominal groups. However, on a final individual free recall test, members of two- and four-person collaborative groups recalled a higher proportion of the list than members of nominal groups. In Experiment 2, recall in three-person collaborative groups was less than in three-person nominal groups but only on the first of three successive study-test trials. On the final individual free recall test, members of collaborative groups recalled more words than members of nominal groups. Despite inhibiting recall and reminiscence, collaboration benefits remembering when collaborators are subsequently tested individually. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.