Is that my memory? Effects of interpersonal relationships on shared memory

This thesis documents the results of a research project investigating the relationship between interpersonal relationship factors and shared memory. Although shared memory and the factors that influence it have been researched more in recent years, there has been limited research which has measured the specific influence of interpersonal factors such as familiarity, trust, confidence, and memory esteem on memory distortion, specifically memory conformity and false memory. The research presented in this thesis sought to fill the void in the shared memory literature and also proposed new use of image recording technology for assessing the impact of dyadic memory conformity on memory recognition. There are four empirical chapters (2-5) in this thesis. Within these four chapters are four separate and related studies, which examine the influence of familiarity, trust, confidence, and memory esteem on memory distortion for ordinary events and for flashbulb memory of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, along with the use of image recording technology (SenseCam TM) as an objective measure of memory distortion between dyadic members. In Chapter 2, it was hypothesised that familiarity and trust would interact with reminiscence type (discussion vs. revision) between dyadic members and would result in an increase in memory conformity (both corrective and distortive) and false memory. The findings were consistent with the hypothesis. Chapter 3 followed on from investigating interpersonal constructs on ordinary events, by using flashbulb memory of 9/11 as the stimulus and focusing on interpersonal familiarity, trust, confidence and memory esteem. It was expected that due to people being protective of their memories for meaningful and emotional flashbulb events, there would be low levels of memory conformity. However, with the social power of discussion, as evident in Chapter 2, people would possibly alter their memories in favour of another person whom they know. We proposed a new concept and termed it memory esteem and predicted that this would negatively relate to memory conformity. The findings were consistent with the expectation. Chapter 4 involved investigating the impact of using visual record keeping for dyadic members undertaking everyday tasks and its subsequent impact on memory distortion. It was found that image diary technology and its interaction with interpersonal trust and memory esteem resulted in lowering memory conformity. Having investigated shared memory and the outcomes for memory conformity and false memory in the previous chapters, in Chapter 5 we examined individual recognition memory and found that memory esteem negatively predicted corrective and distortive memory conformity, leading to positive and negative outcomes for recognition memory. In sum, the research presented in this thesis suggests that interpersonal relationship factors have important influences on shared memory and subsequent memory distortion. Further, that the visual record keeping could be further used as a tool for investigating normal memory function and possibly for aiding conformity reduction. These findings fill a gap in the shared memory research and the important implications of these findings for everyday life and for the judicial system are discussed.