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Interpersonal memory-based guidance of attention is reduced for ingroup members

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Abstract

Participants jointly engaged in common tasks with co-actors can be influenced in guiding their own attention by representations of what the co-actor also holds in memory (He et al. under review). This demonstrates an effect of interpersonal memory on attention. Here, we tested how this interpersonal memory effect is affected by the relationship between the actors. Participants searched for targets while maintaining images in working memory or after previewed images that co-actors had to memorise. We examined three groups: Caucasian strangers (low ingroup relations) and two other groups with likely higher ingroup relations (Caucasian friends and Chinese participants living in Britain). In all three groups, attention was directed to stimuli that matched the item the individual had to memorise. However, images that had to be memorised by co-actors only attracted the attention of Caucasian strangers but not the Caucasian friends and Chinese participants. We suggest that interpersonal memory-based guidance of attention is modulated by the nature of the relationship between individuals and reduces when individuals have higher ingroup relations.

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Notes

  1. Friends may show greater involvement (competition) in a competitive game. However there is overwhelming prior evidence indicating that increased cooperation is more likely in non-competitive situations as in the present study (where no performance feedback was given).

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, UK.

Ethical statements

The study has been approved by the Ethics Committee in University of Birmingham and hence been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki standards. All participants gave informed consent prior to their participation in the study. The authors do not have any financial relationship with the organisation that sponsored the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioural Brain Sciences, School of Psychology, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    Xun He & Glyn W. Humphreys

  2. Department of Psychology and Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Anne G. Lever

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  1. Xun He
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  2. Anne G. Lever
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  3. Glyn W. Humphreys
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Correspondence to Xun He.

Additional information

Part of this study was reported in the 7th International Conference on Cognitive Science (August 2010) and in a British Neuropsychological Society meeting (October 2010).

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He, X., Lever, A.G. & Humphreys, G.W. Interpersonal memory-based guidance of attention is reduced for ingroup members. Exp Brain Res 211, 429–438 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2698-8

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