The impact of group ownership on memory

Abstract

The influence of the self on memory processes has been extensively investigated (the self-reference effect) both explicitly (trait-rating paradigm) and implicitly (ownership paradigm). The groups that are closely related to the self are an important part of self-concept, and group-reference facilitated recall to the same extent as self-referencing using trait-rating paradigm. The current research employed an ownership procedure to investigate the impact of group ownership on memory using the participants’ family served as the reference group. In both experiments, participants were asked to sort items into baskets that belonged to their family or a fictitious family. A subsequent recognition test showed that there was a significant memory advantage for objects that owned by their family, and the ownership effect was found in remember, but not know, responses. This finding suggests that transient ingroup-ownership of items had a significant memory dominance effect, and the enhancing effect of ownership leads to recollective experience.

Keywords:

• Self
• group self
• ownership
• memory
• recollective experience

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest on this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The National Social Science Fund of China (17CSH039).