ERIC Number: EJ1249038
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Apr
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Investigating the Formation and Consolidation of Incidentally Learned Trust
Strachan, James W. A.; Guttesen, Anna á Váli; Smith, Anika K.; Gaskell, M. Gareth; Tipper, Steven P.; Cairney, Scott A.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v46 n4 p684-698 Apr 2020
People make inferences about the trustworthiness of others based on their observed gaze behavior. Faces that consistently look toward a target location are rated as more trustworthy than those that look away from the target. Representations of trust are important for future interactions; yet little is known about how they are consolidated in long-term memory. Sleep facilitates memory consolidation for incidentally learned information and may therefore support the retention of trust representations. We investigated the consolidation of trust inferences across periods of sleep or wakefulness. In addition, we employed a memory cueing procedure (targeted memory reactivation [TMR]) in a bid to strengthen certain trust memories over others. We observed no difference in the retention of trust inferences following delays of sleep or wakefulness, and there was no effect of TMR in either condition. Interestingly, trust inferences remained stable 1 week after learning, irrespective of the initial postlearning delay. A second experiment showed that this implicit learning occurs despite participants' being unable to explicitly recall the gaze behavior of specific faces immediately after encoding. Together, these results suggest that gist-like, social inferences are formed at the time of learning without retaining the original episodic memory and thus do not benefit from offline consolidation through replay. We discuss our findings in the context of a novel framework whereby trust judgments reflect an efficient, powerful, and adaptable storage device for social information.
Descriptors: Incidental Learning, Trust (Psychology), Inferences, Sleep, Retention (Psychology), Nonverbal Communication, Socialization, Cues, Short Term Memory, Young Adults, Foreign Countries, Reaction Time, Recall (Psychology), Evaluative Thinking
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/q79gv/