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 Small Group Meeting "Shared Memories and Beliefs"
Posted by: Gerald Echterhoff, PhD
Title/Position: Assistant Professor
School/Organization: University of Bielefeld, Social Psychology
Sent to listserv of: SESP, SPSSI
Date posted: April 9th, 2007


Second Call for Submissions

Small Group Meeting
"Shared Memories, Shared Beliefs: The Formation and Use of Joint Representations in Social Interaction"

September 23-27, 2007, in Rapallo (Italy)
(September 23 is arrival and welcome day.)

Organizers:
Gerald Echterhoff (University of Bielefeld)
Anna E. Clark (Free University Amsterdam)
Amina Memon (University of Aberdeen)
Gün R. Semin (Free University Amsterdam)

Interest in the socially shared nature of individuals’ perceptions and representations has soared in experimental social psychology (e.g., Hardin & Higgins, 1996) and other related fields, such as memory (Gabbert, Memon, & Allan, 2003; Hirst & Manier, 2002), cognition (Barsalou et al., 2003; Smith & Semin, 2004), psycholinguistics (Pickering & Garrod, 2004), communication (Higgins & Semin, 2001), and social neuroscience (e.g., Gallese, Keysers, & Rizzolatti, 2003). In diverse subdomains, there is increasing evidence on how people are influenced by interaction and communication with others or by the broader social context when they form their own views and beliefs and when they remember past experiences.

Contributions to the meeting are expected to focus on shared processes in social cognition (e.g., forming beliefs and judgments about others and oneself; construing information in communication) and on the shared character of memory. We will further distinguish between shared representations as (a) dependent and (b) independent variables, regarding questions such as: (a) How are joint representations formed and attained on-line (as in joint, physically co-present encoding or retrieval; e.g. Cuc, Koppel, & Hirst, in press) or off-line (as in priming with social stimuli)? And what are the factors (e.g., cognitive or neural mechanisms; affiliative or self-serving motives; linguistic tools; conversational relevance; existing stereotypes) that shape the formation of these shared representations? (b) What are the effects (benefits or functions) of joint representations? For example, the joint nature of representations can foster interpersonal trust and empathy, facilitate conversation, allow the coordination of action across individuals, guide the abstraction level of information in conversation (Clark & Semin, 2006), or grant epistemic confidence or closure (Echterhoff, Higgins, & Groll, 2005; Echterhoff, Higgins, Kopietz, & Groll, in press; Kruglanski, Pierro, Manetti, & De Grada, 2006). The meeting is designed to build bridges across research areas and reveal new lines of enquiry which dovetail social-psychological research with approaches in related areas.

A number of highly respected researchers have confirmed their participation, and there are still some open slots. Preliminary requests and applications for participation, including an abstract for a contribution (up to 250 words) plus contact information, can be sent to Gerald Echterhoff (gerald.echterhoff@uni-bielefeld.de). Deadline for the submission of applications is *April 30, 2007*.

The meeting receives generous support from the European Association for Experimental Social Psychology (EAESP). For further information about the venue, see:

http://www.hotelastoriarapallo.it/

References:

Barsalou, L. W., Niedenthal, P. M., Barbey, A., & Ruppert, J. (2003). Social embodiment. In B. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 43, pp. 43-92). San Diego: Academic Press.
Clark, A. E., & Semin, G. R. (2006). Construal level: Psychological distance or socially functional relevance? Manuscript submitted for publication.
Cuc, A., Koppel, J., & Hirst, W. (in press). Silence is not golden: A case for socially-shared retrieval induced forgetting. Psychological Science.
Echterhoff, G., Higgins, E. T. & Groll, S. (2005). Audience-tuning effects on memory: The role of shared reality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 257-276.
Echterhoff, G., Higgins, E. T., Kopietz, R., & Groll, S. (in press). How communication goals determine when audience tuning biases memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Gabbert, F., Memon, A. & Allan, K. (2003). Memory Conformity: Can eyewitnesses influence each other's memories for an event? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 533-544.
Gallese, V., Keysers, C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 396-403.
Hardin, C. D. & Higgins, E. T. (1996). Shared reality: How social verification makes the subjective objective. In R. M. Sorrentino & E. T: Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition: The interpersonal context (Vol. 3, pp. 28-84). New York: Guilford Press.
Higgins, E. T., & Semin, G. R. (2001). Communication and social psychology. In N. J. Smelser & B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 2296-2299). Oxford: Pergamon.
Hirst, W., & Manier, D. (2002). The diverse forms of collective memory. In G. Echterhoff & M. Saar (Eds.), Kontexte und Kulturen des Erinnerns [Contexts and cultures of remembering] (pp. 37-58). Constance, Germany: UVK.
Kruglanski, A. W., Pierro, A., Mannetti, L., & De Grada, E. (2006). Groups as epistemic providers: Need for closure and the unfolding of group-centrism. Psychological Review, 113, 84-100.
Pickering, M. J., & Garrod, S. (2004) Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27, 169-225.
Smith, E. R., & Semin, G. R. (2004). Socially situated cognition: Cognition in its social context. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 36, 53-115.




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