Does the Survival Processing Memory Advantage Translate to Serial Recall?

The survival processing effect describes the phenomenon that memory for items is better after they have been processed in the context of a fitness-related survival scenario as compared to alternative processing contexts. In the present study, we examined whether the survival processing memory advant...

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Main Authors: Fynn O. Wöstenfeld, Suhaib Ahmad, Meike Kroneisen, Jan Rummel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of California Press 2020-01-01
Series:Collabra: Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.collabra.org/articles/243
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author Fynn O. Wöstenfeld
Suhaib Ahmad
Meike Kroneisen
Jan Rummel
author_facet Fynn O. Wöstenfeld
Suhaib Ahmad
Meike Kroneisen
Jan Rummel
author_sort Fynn O. Wöstenfeld
collection DOAJ
description The survival processing effect describes the phenomenon that memory for items is better after they have been processed in the context of a fitness-related survival scenario as compared to alternative processing contexts. In the present study, we examined whether the survival processing memory advantage translates to memory for the order of processed items. Across two serial-recall experiments, we replicated the survival processing effect for free recall but did not find an additional survival processing advantage for serial recall when we controlled serial recall performance for the total number of words recalled per person. Adjusted serial recall performance was not better in the survival processing condition when compared to a moving and a relational pleasantness processing condition (Experiment 1), even when processing of the relational order of stimuli was explicitly endorsed in the survival processing task (Experiment 2). This finding is in line with the idea that enhanced item-specific rather than enhanced relational processing of items underlies the survival processing effect. Moreover, our findings indicate that survival processing does not increase memory efficiency for temporal context information.
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spelling doaj.art-11f7afd93e08497a83b3104a381e2e8b2022-12-21T18:40:12ZengUniversity of California PressCollabra: Psychology2474-73942020-01-016110.1525/collabra.243176Does the Survival Processing Memory Advantage Translate to Serial Recall?Fynn O. Wöstenfeld0Suhaib Ahmad1Meike Kroneisen2Jan Rummel3Department of Psychology, Heidelberg UniversityTechnical University of KaiserslauternDepartment of Psychology, University of Landau, DE; Department of Psychology, University of MannheimDepartment of Psychology, Heidelberg UniversityThe survival processing effect describes the phenomenon that memory for items is better after they have been processed in the context of a fitness-related survival scenario as compared to alternative processing contexts. In the present study, we examined whether the survival processing memory advantage translates to memory for the order of processed items. Across two serial-recall experiments, we replicated the survival processing effect for free recall but did not find an additional survival processing advantage for serial recall when we controlled serial recall performance for the total number of words recalled per person. Adjusted serial recall performance was not better in the survival processing condition when compared to a moving and a relational pleasantness processing condition (Experiment 1), even when processing of the relational order of stimuli was explicitly endorsed in the survival processing task (Experiment 2). This finding is in line with the idea that enhanced item-specific rather than enhanced relational processing of items underlies the survival processing effect. Moreover, our findings indicate that survival processing does not increase memory efficiency for temporal context information.https://www.collabra.org/articles/243survival processing memory advantageserial recallrelational versus item specific processingboundary conditions
spellingShingle Fynn O. Wöstenfeld
Suhaib Ahmad
Meike Kroneisen
Jan Rummel
Does the Survival Processing Memory Advantage Translate to Serial Recall?
Collabra: Psychology
survival processing memory advantage
serial recall
relational versus item specific processing
boundary conditions
title Does the Survival Processing Memory Advantage Translate to Serial Recall?
title_full Does the Survival Processing Memory Advantage Translate to Serial Recall?
title_fullStr Does the Survival Processing Memory Advantage Translate to Serial Recall?
title_full_unstemmed Does the Survival Processing Memory Advantage Translate to Serial Recall?
title_short Does the Survival Processing Memory Advantage Translate to Serial Recall?
title_sort does the survival processing memory advantage translate to serial recall
topic survival processing memory advantage
serial recall
relational versus item specific processing
boundary conditions
url https://www.collabra.org/articles/243
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AT meikekroneisen doesthesurvivalprocessingmemoryadvantagetranslatetoserialrecall
AT janrummel doesthesurvivalprocessingmemoryadvantagetranslatetoserialrecall