Our work on the adaptive functions of storytelling featured in the French magazine 'Cerveau & Psycho'

Our work on the adaptive functions of storytelling has been featured in the French magazine Cerveau & Psycho. 

You can read the article for free here

And it is based on our open access research article published in TopiCS in Cognitive Science last year: 

Bietti, L.M., Tilston, O., & Bangerter, A. (2018). Storytelling as adaptive collective sensemaking. TopiCS in Cognitive Science.  https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12358

Collaborative remembering, temporal cement of collaborative learning: An exploration

Bietti, L.M. & Baker, M.J. (2019). Collaborative remembering, temporal cement of collaborative learning: An exploration. In Lund, K., Niccolai, G., Lavoué, E., Hmelo-Silver, C., Gweon, G., and Baker, M. (Eds.). A Wide Lens: Combining Embodied, Enactive, Extended, and Embedded Learning in Collaborative Settings,13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning(CSCL) 2019, Volume 2 (pp. 601-604). Lyon, France: International Society of the Learning Sciences. [Acceptance rate: 22%]

Abstract
This theoretical paper explores the relations between two fields of research: collaborative remembering and collaborative learning. We argue that collaborative remembering processes scaffold collaborative learning and that both unfold over multiple and complementary timescales. These timescales help to maintain joint focus and continuity over successive learning sequences. In conclusion, we discuss implications of integrating collaborative remembering research into the design of CSCL situations.

Collaborative remembering at work

Bietti, L.M. & Baker, M.J. (2018). Collaborative remembering at work. Interaction Studies, 19 (3), 459-486.  https://doi.org/10.1075/is.17010.bie. Preprint here. 
                                              

Abstract

Collaborative remembering is essential to enabling teams to build shared understanding of projects and their progress. This article presents an analysis of collaborative remembering sequences in a corpus of interactions collected in a workplace where a team of designers developed a video television commercial. On the basis of coding and analysing linguistic and bodily behaviors in 158 such sequences, extracted from over 45 hours of video recordings, recurrent patterns of collaborative remembering processes were identified, relating to the interplay of work roles. This article shows that collaborative remembering in the design studio is structured by behavioural, interactive and social factors.

Storytelling as adaptive collective sensemaking

Bietti, L.M., Tilston, O., & Bangerter, A. (2018). Storytelling as adaptive collective sensemaking. TopiCS in Cognitive Science.  https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12358

Abstract

Storytelling represents a key element in the creation and propagation of culture. Three main accounts of the adaptive function of storytelling include (a) manipulating the behavior of the audience to enhance the fitness of the narrator, (b) transmitting survival-relevant information while avoiding the costs involved in the first-hand acquisition of that information, and (c) maintaining social bonds or group-level cooperation. We assess the substantial evidence collected in experimental and ethnographic studies for each account. These accounts do not always appeal to the specific features of storytelling above and beyond language use in general. We propose that the specific adaptive value of storytelling lies in making sense of non-routine, uncertain, or novel situations, thereby enabling the collaborative development of previously acquired skills and knowledge, but also promoting social cohesion by strengthening intragroup identity and clarifying intergroup relations.

Memory bias toward emotional information in burnout and depression

Bianchi, R., Laurent, E., Schonfeld, I.S., Bietti, L. M., & Mayor, E. (2018). Memory bias toward emotional information in burnout and depression. Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105318765621

Abstract

A sample of 1015 educational staff members, exhibiting various levels of burnout and depressive symptoms, underwent a memory test involving incident encoding of positive and negative words and a free recall task. Burnout and depression were each found to be associated with increased recall of negative items and decreased recall of positive items. Results remained statistically significant when controlling for history of depressive disorders. Burnout and depression were not related to mistakes in the reported words, or to the overall number of recalled words. This study suggests that burnout and depression overlap in terms of memory biases toward emotional information.

Multimodal processes of joint remembering in complex collaborative activities

Bietti, L.M. & Baker, M.J. (2018). Multimodal processes of joint remembering in complex collaborative activities. In M. Meade, A. Barnier, P. van Bergen, C. B. Harris & J. Sutton (eds.), Collaborative remembering: Theories, Research and Applications (pp. 177-196). New York: Oxford University Press.

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to expand research on joint remembering into real- world complex collaborative activities at the workplace. In order to do so, we aim to show how a substantial part of the joint remembering in complex collaborative activities takes place outside the verbal domain. We illustrate how the interweaving of verbal, corporal, social, and material resources supports joint remembering of relevant aspects of work projects during group interactions. Here we focus on those interactional sequences concerning past actions and events, in relation to work projects, that are triggered by questions acting as reminders. We call such sequences collaborative remembering sequences (CRSs). Our qualitative microanalysis of CRSs deals with cases of “real world” organizational remembering. The group interactions that we present as illustrative examples to support our theoretical standpoint were taken from a corpus collected on the basis of two naturalistic studies following a joint remembering collaborative design that we conducted with architects and animation designers at their workplaces.