ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on encoding and retrieval in small-scale collective memory. There has been relatively little interaction between research on collective intentionality in philosophy and research on collective memory in psychology and the social sciences. Collective remembering unfolds at a range of scales, and it is necessary to be alert to the possibility of real differences between small-scale collective memory and large-scale collective memory. Both encoding and retrieval in groups might be either parallel, in the sense that each group member implements the process without significant interaction with the others, or interactive, in the sense that group members interact. The former has tended to focus primarily on cooperative interactions, but there is room for additional work on ways in which memory in small-scale groups can be collective while being conflictual. One concept from the collective intentionality literature that might help us to come to grips with the possibility of strongly shared memory is that of joint action.
