Individualism-collectivism and interpersonal memory guidance of attention

Xun He, Natalie Sebanz, Jie Sui, Glyn W. Humphreys

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Recently it has been shown that the allocation of attention by a participant in a visual search task can be affected by memory items that have to be maintained by a co-actor, when similar tasks are jointly engaged by dyads (He, Lever, & Humphreys, 2011). In the present study we examined the contribution of individualism-collectivism to this 'interpersonal memory guidance' effect. Actors performed visual search while a preview image was either held by the critical participant, held by a co-actor or was irrelevant to either participant. Attention during search was attracted to stimuli that matched the contents of the co-actor's memory. This interpersonal effect correlated with the collectivism scores, and was enhanced by priming with a collectivistic scenario. The dimensions of individualism, however, did not contribute to performance. These data suggest that collectivism, but not individualism, modulates interpersonal influences on memory and attention in joint action.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)102-114
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Experimental Social Psychology
Volume54
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Attention
  • Individualism-collectivism
  • Interpersonal processes
  • Priming
  • Working memory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Sociology and Political Science

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