Abstract
Much of the information we retain and use in our daily life pertains to how we interact with the world around us, including the social environment. Social influences on memory include information that is social in content, such as for impressions or social cues, or for information that is transmitted through social interactions, such as a group working together to remember the plot of a movie. Social neuroscience research has established that distinct neural regions falling along the cortical midline, including the medial prefrontal cortex, respond to social information and predict subsequent memory performance. In this chapter three areas of social influence on memory are reviewed, in addition to the subsequent neural regions involved: the self-reference effect, impression formation, and collaborative memory. Because aging influences the efficiency and functionality of memory systems, these changes can also affect the ways in which social information is prioritized and remembered. This has important implications for memory strategies in older adults and is also addressed in the present chapter.