The propagation of memories within small groups and across social networks

虽然人类记忆的运作可以从个体思维过程的角度来理解，但人类记忆并不存在于真空中——它是在人们之间复杂的社会互动的更大背景下运作的。一个重要的问题是社会互动如何影响记忆本身，同样，记忆过程如何影响社会互动。先前的研究已经证实，人们之间关于共同记忆的社会互动会影响任何特定个体的记忆。在某些情况下，结果是对信息的记忆增强，而在其他情况下，结果是信息的遗忘。目前的项目将调查记忆的社会传递，以及这种传递如何塑造个体之间共享的记忆，作为理解社会网络如何影响行为的基础。总的来说，该项目将提供的见解不仅将增加对人类记忆基本运作的理解，而且还将提高对行为如何在大群体中传播的理解。这项工作可能对诸如目击者记忆、教育实践以及如何有效地构建组织等社会问题具有重要意义。为了研究社会互动如何影响记忆，以及这些影响如何影响大群体的集体行为，本项目的研究人员将研究个人之间的信息流。将进行行为实验，并用于为计算模型的开发提供信息，该模型反过来将允许对信息如何在大型现实社会网络中流动进行严格的预测。因为随着社会网络规模的扩大，网络结构变得越来越复杂，而且因为过去的工作几乎完全采用了小型的、无结构的群体，所以该项目通过一系列研究来关注互动的结构，每一项研究都调查了一组日益复杂的社会互动。每项研究都包括一个行为实验和一个类似的基于主体的计算模拟。该项目最终将产生一个心理学上合理的模型，既能描述记忆的社会传播机制，又能忠实地捕捉结构化网络中个人的记忆趋同（和分化）流。一旦实现，这个经过实验验证的模型将允许集体记忆现象在目前在实验室环境中不可行的规模上进行研究。

Though the operation of human memory can be understood in terms of processes occurring inside an individual's mind, human memory does not exist within a vacuum--it operates within a larger context of complex social interactions among people. An important question is how social interactions influence memory itself, and likewise, how memory processes influence social interactions. Prior research has established that social interactions among people regarding their shared memories can influence what is remembered by any particular individual involved. In some cases, the result is memory enhancement for the information while in other cases the result is forgetting of the information. The current project will investigate the social transmission of memory and how such transmission shapes the memories shared among individuals as the basis for understanding how social networks influence behavior. Overall, the project will provide insight that will not only increase understanding of the basic operation of human memory, but that will also improve understanding of how behaviors are transmitted within large populations. This work could have important implications for societal issues such as eyewitness memory, educational practice, and how to effectively structure organizations.To investigate how social interactions influence memory and how these influences affect large-group aggregate behavior, the researchers in the present project will examine the flow of information among individuals. Behavioral experiments will be conducted and used to inform the development of a computational model that in turn will allow rigorous predictions to be made about how information flows within large, realistic social networks. Because the structure of the network becomes increasingly complex as social networks increase in size and because past work has almost exclusively employed small, unstructured groups, the project focuses on the structure of the interactions with a series of studies each investigating an increasingly complex set of social interactions. Each study consists of a behavioral experiment and an analogous agent-based computational simulation. The project will ultimately yield a psychologically plausible model capable of both describing the mechanisms that underlie the social transmission of memory and of faithfully capturing the flow of memory convergence (and divergence) of individuals situated within structured networks. Once realized, this experimentally-validated model will allow collective memory phenomena to be investigated at scales that are not currently feasible in laboratory settings.