Social and moral relevance of memory

Abstract

Background: Previous research has discussed how remembering is a sociopsychological phenomenon; that is, a phenomenon that happens as an interplay between internal cognitive processes as well as external social factors. This article examines remembering from this perspective in conversations between a father and his son, who has suffered traumatic brain injury and has problems with his short-term memory as a result. Method: We examined 82 known-answer questions using conversation analysis. Each question, as well as the interaction it was part of, was transcribed and analyzed as single instances (single cases), and then compared and analyzed as a joint collection. Results: In both first, second, and third position, the father formulated his utterances in such a way that the son was treated as someone who had access to the knowledge. In addition, when the son claimed to not know something, the father challenged this and constructed his son as someone who was responsible for remembering the information. Conclusion: We show how knowing and remembering are social phenomena that carry their own moral rules and practices in interaction. By challenging his son’s claims of not knowing and designing turns that make the son accountable for knowing information, the father makes his son answer questions he initially claimed not to know the answers to.