RETRIEVAL-PROCESSES IN TRANSACTIVE MEMORY-SYSTEMS

Two experiments examined retrieval processes in transactive memory sys tems (D. M. Wegner, 1987). In Experiment 1, intimate couples who worke d face to face performed better on a knowledge-pooling task than stran gers who worked face to face and better than intimate couples who work ed via a computer conferencing system Additional analyses indicated th at intimate couples when interacting face to face were better able to determine which partner was correct on questions that only 1 member kn ew the answer to prior to discussion. In Experiment 2, intimate couple s scored significantly better on the knowledge task when they had acce ss to either nonverbal or paralinguistic communication cues than when they had access to neither. Taken together, the results indicate that both nonverbal and paralinguistic communication play an important role in the retrieval of knowledge in transactive memory systems.