Transactive memory is a psychological hypothesis first proposed by Daniel Wegner in 1985 as a response to earlier theories of "group mind" such as groupthink.
[1] A transactive memory system is a mechanism through which groups collectively encode, store, and retrieve knowledge.
Transactive memory was initially studied in couples and families where individuals had close relationships but was later extended to teams, larger groups, and organizations to explain how they develop a "group mind",[1] a memory system that is more complex and potentially more effective than that of any of its individual constituents.
[1] This concept proposed that when two individuals spend a lot of time around each other and work together, they create a shared store of knowledge between the members.
[5] Wegner first proposed these three processes which occur in groups that lead to the formation and reification of transactive memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval described more below.
[8] In this work, the development of transactive memory was conceived of as a way to improve group's performance when engaging in interdependent tasks.
Much research has shown that a transactive memory system is primarily developed through interactions between team members.
Training on the task that a group is expected to do together has been shown to assist in the development of a transactive memory system.
In a later study, these same researchers also determined that familiarity with their teammates or liking didn't explain the differences between groups that were trained together and those that were not.
The existence of many interactions in the early stages of group formation provides each of the teammates the opportunity to get to know other team members' training, level of expertise or the lack of knowledge in certain areas,[6] and develop a shared understanding of the task's requirements and the way that the total of the teammates knowledge combines.
This differentiation of knowledge is where the real benefit of a transactive memory system is enacted because, with less overlap in member's areas of expertise, distribution of labor becomes easier and the group can become more efficient (Wegner 1987).
[2] In groups that have developed a transactive memory, members are able to easily coordinate with one another and can go directly to those with expertise if they need their information.
[17] When groups that developed a transactive memory system, they will have gone through the encoding, storing, retrieval process several times for information.
The existence of a transactive memory system within a group allows for quick access to a large amount of knowledge, improving information integration processes,[20] improving decision making processes,[21] influencing the perception of efficiency of other teammates, and increasing their satisfaction and sense of identification with the team and the organization.
Lewis and Herndon (2011) suggested criteria for kinds of tasks that a developed transactive memory system will be the most helpful in improving the performance of.
For these reasons, groups performing tasks that can't be broken apart or require little specialization may not get much benefit out of the development of a transactive memory system.
The authors suggest that tasks where ideas have to be executed and all members have the same goal will benefit the most from a transactive memory system.
Conversely the authors suggest that groups that engage in brainstorming or decision tasks may develop transactive memory systems faster than those merely executing ideas because there is more knowledge sharing and interaction between members.