How memory biases affect information transmission: A rational analysis of serial reproduction

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many human interactions involve pieces of information being passed from one person to another, raising the question of how this process of information transmission is affected by the capacities of the agents involved. In the 1930s, Sir Frederic Bartlett explored the influence of memory biases in "serial reproduction" of information, in which one person's reconstruction of a stimulus from memory becomes the stimulus seen by the next person. These experiments were done using relatively uncontrolled stimuli such as pictures and stories, but suggested that serial reproduction would transform information in a way that reflected the biases inherent in memory. We formally analyze serial reproduction using a Bayesian model of reconstruction from memory, giving a general result characterizing the effect of memory biases on information transmission. We then test the predictions of this account in two experiments using simple one-dimensional stimuli. Our results provide theoretical and empirical justification for the idea that serial reproduction reflects memory biases.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAdvances in Neural Information Processing Systems 21 - Proceedings of the 2008 Conference
PublisherNeural Information Processing Systems
Pages1809-1816
Number of pages8
ISBN (Print)9781605609492
StatePublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes
Event22nd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NIPS 2008 - Vancouver, BC, Canada
Duration: Dec 8 2008Dec 11 2008

Publication series

NameAdvances in Neural Information Processing Systems 21 - Proceedings of the 2008 Conference

Other

Other22nd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NIPS 2008
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVancouver, BC
Period12/8/0812/11/08

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Information Systems

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