Chunking by social relationship in working memory

• Published in: Visual cognition Vol. 30; no. 5; pp. 354 - 370
• Main Authors: Paparella, Ilenia, Papeo, Liuba
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hove Routledge 28.05.2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: chunking; Cognitive science; Humanities and Social Sciences; perceptual grouping; Psychology; scene perception; Short term memory; social working memory; Working memory; perceptual grouping; social cognition; working memory; scene perception; chunking
• ISSN: 1350-6285; 1464-0716
• DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2022.2064950

Working memory (WM) uses knowledge and relations to organize and store multiple items in fewer structured units, or chunks. We investigated: (a) whether a crowd that exceeds the WM capacity is retained better if individuals can be grouped in social chunks; and (b) what counts as a social chunk: two individuals involved in a meaningful interaction or just spatially close and face-to-face. In a delayed change-detection task, participants were more accurate in reporting changes in arrays involving facing (vs. non-facing) dyads whether they depicted meaningful interactions or not (Experiments 1, 2 and 4). This advantage survived a secondary task that increased WM load, only when facing dyads formed meaningful interactions (Experiment 3). Thus, WM uses representation of interaction to chunk crowds in social groups. The mere face-to-face positioning is sufficient to trigger social chunking, although without a semantic anchor this process is fainter and more susceptible to interference.