Higher social intelligence can impair source memory

J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2010 Mar;36(2):545-51. doi: 10.1037/a0018406.

Abstract

Source monitoring is made difficult when the similarity between candidate sources increases. The current work examines how individual differences in social intelligence and perspective-taking abilities serve to increase source similarity and thus negatively impact source memory. Strangers first engaged in a cooperative storytelling task. On each trial, a single word was shown to both participants, but only 1 participant was designated to add a story sentence, using this assigned word. As predicted, social intelligence negatively predicted performance in a subsequent source-monitoring task. In a 2nd study, preventing participants from being able to anticipate their partner's next contribution to the story eliminated the effect.

MeSH terms

  • Emotional Intelligence / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Individuality
  • Inhibition, Psychological
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Memory Disorders / etiology*
  • Mental Recall / physiology*
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Students
  • Universities
  • Vocabulary