Benefits of collaborative remembering in older and younger couples: the role of conversation dynamics and gender

ABSTRACT

We experimentally explored whether and how conversation dynamics would benefit collaborative remembering in intimate couples over time. To this end, we ran a study with a three-factor mixed design with relationship type (couples vs. strangers) and age (older adults vs. younger adults) as between-participants variables, and remembering condition (collaborative vs. individual) as a within-participants variable. Thirty pairs of intimate couples (fifteen long-term relationship older couples, fifteen short-term relationship younger couples) and thirty pairs of corresponding stranger-pairs (including older strangers and younger strangers) were compared with respect to recall accuracy and conversation dynamics, specifically considering the role of gender. Results revealed significant collaborative facilitation only in older couples. Also, females’ communication behaviours facilitated males’ collaborative remembering performance only in older (vs. younger) couples. In addition, a gender-specific pattern of shifts from the individual to collaborative context emerged only in older couple (vs. strangers). The findings are consistent with the notion that a longer experience of collaboration and more effective conversation dynamics allow older (vs. younger) couples to perform better at collaborative remembering. We discuss processes underlying the observed gender differences, and the social and motivational implications of collaborative remembering.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative remembering
• transactive memory systems
• intimate couples
• conversation dynamics
• gender

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the participants, all the experimental assistants, and the principal of the participant community.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Data availability statement

All data and research materials are available at the APA Open Science Repository [https://osf.io/u5pj6/?view_only=e0ac96d427b64961ba47ade5270eab67]. Our study’s design and its analysis were not pre-registered.

Additional information

Funding

The preparation of this manuscript was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) EC 317/10-1 (Project Number 419049966), awarded to Gerald Echterhoff. Additionally, conducting the experiment was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education of China, Humanities and social science projects (Project Number 21YJA190008).