Topic and Objectives of the Meeting

In recent years, interest in the joint or socially shared nature of individuals’ perceptions and representations has soared in experimental social psychology (e.g., Forgas & Williams, 2001; Hardin & Higgins, 1996) and other closely related fields, such as memory (Gabbert, Memon, & Allan, 2003; Hirst & Manier, 2002; Weldon, 2001), cognition (Barsalou et al., 2003; Prinz, 2002; Sebanz, Bekkering & Knoblich, 2006; Smith & Semin, 2004), psycholinguistics (Liberman & Whalen, 2000; Pickering & Garrod, 2004), sociology (Thompson & Fine, 1999), communication (Higgins & Semin, 2001), developmental psychology (Meltzoff & Decety, 2003), and social neuroscience (e.g., Cacioppo & Berntson, 2004; Gallese, Keysers, & Rizzolatti, 2003). Across these diverse subdomains, there is an increasing corpus of evidence on how people are influenced by interaction and communication with others or by the broader social context when they form their own views and beliefs about the world and themselves, and when they remember past experien s. Clearly, these interests resonate with accounts emphasizing the role of interpersonal processes in how people form and construe their perceptions, beliefs, judgments, and impressions that have been foundational themes throughout the history of social psychology (e.g., Asch, 1952; Festinger, 1950; Heider, 1958; Mead, 1934; Moscovici, 1981; Schachter, 1959; Sherif, 1936). The recent approaches can be seen as continuing these traditional trajectories, with new methodologies, novel conceptual tools, and discipline-specific goals. The aim of the planned small group meeting is to bring together senior scientists, early career researchers, and doctoral students with curiosity and expertise in this field to exchange ideas and to work towards an integrated outlook from a primarily social-psychological perspective. Contributions to the meeting shall focus on shared processes in social cognition (e.g., forming beliefs and judgments about others and oneself; construing information in communication) and on the shared aracter of memory and remembering. We will further distinguish between shared representations as (a) dependent and (b) independent variables, with attention to questions such as: (a) How are joint representations formed and attained on-line (as in joint, physically co-present encoding or retrieval; Cuc, Koppel, & Hirst, 2006; Gabbert et al., 2003) or off-line (as in priming with social stimuli)? And, what are the factors (e.g., basic cognitive or neural mechanisms; affiliative or self-serving motives; linguistic tools; conversational relevance; existing stereotypes) that shape the formation of these shared representations? (b) What are the effects (the benefits, uses, functions) of joint representations? For example, the joint nature of representations can foster interpersonal trust, empathy, and liking (Semin, 2000), facilitate smooth conversation between interlocutors (Pickering & Garrod, 2004), allow the coordination of action across individuals, guide the abstraction level of information in conversation lark & Semin, 2006), or grant epistemic confidence or closure (Echterhoff, Higgins, & Groll, 2005; Echterhoff, Higgins, Kopietz, & Groll, in press; Kruglanski, Pierro, Manetti, & De Grada, 2006). The meeting is designed to build bridges across the various research domains and reveal new lines of enquiry which dovetail social-psychological research with approaches in the other areas, and allow for collaborations across these new connections. It is expected that the planned presentations and discussions will both initiate new collaborations and strengthen incipient collaborations between participants, especially those who are members of the EAESP, with reference to theory, methodology, and application.