Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidation

Our experiences in the world support memories not only of specific episodes but also of the generalities (the ‘gist’) across related experiences. It remains unclear how these two types of memories evolve and influence one another over time. In two experiments, 173 human participants encoded spatial...

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Main Authors: Tima Zeng, Alexa Tompary, Anna C Schapiro, Sharon L Thompson-Schill
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 2021-07-01
Series:eLife
Subjects:
Online Access:https://elifesciences.org/articles/65588
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author Tima Zeng
Alexa Tompary
Anna C Schapiro
Sharon L Thompson-Schill
author_facet Tima Zeng
Alexa Tompary
Anna C Schapiro
Sharon L Thompson-Schill
author_sort Tima Zeng
collection DOAJ
description Our experiences in the world support memories not only of specific episodes but also of the generalities (the ‘gist’) across related experiences. It remains unclear how these two types of memories evolve and influence one another over time. In two experiments, 173 human participants encoded spatial locations from a distribution and reported both item memory (specific locations) and gist memory (center for the locations) across 1–2 months. Experiment 1 demonstrated that after 1 month, gist memory was preserved relative to item memory, despite a persistent positive correlation between them. Critically, item memories were biased toward the gist over time. Experiment 2 showed that a spatial outlier item changed this relationship and that the extraction of gist is sensitive to the regularities of items. Our results suggest that the gist starts to guide item memories over longer durations as their relative strengths change.
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spelling doaj.art-a8e2a8fb266041eebeb22dbcc53faaee2022-12-22T02:01:19ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2021-07-011010.7554/eLife.65588Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidationTima Zeng0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3805-4701Alexa Tompary1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7735-3849Anna C Schapiro2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8086-0331Sharon L Thompson-Schill3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9750-4306Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United StatesOur experiences in the world support memories not only of specific episodes but also of the generalities (the ‘gist’) across related experiences. It remains unclear how these two types of memories evolve and influence one another over time. In two experiments, 173 human participants encoded spatial locations from a distribution and reported both item memory (specific locations) and gist memory (center for the locations) across 1–2 months. Experiment 1 demonstrated that after 1 month, gist memory was preserved relative to item memory, despite a persistent positive correlation between them. Critically, item memories were biased toward the gist over time. Experiment 2 showed that a spatial outlier item changed this relationship and that the extraction of gist is sensitive to the regularities of items. Our results suggest that the gist starts to guide item memories over longer durations as their relative strengths change.https://elifesciences.org/articles/65588episodic memorylong-term memoryconsolidationgist-based biasreconstructive memory
spellingShingle Tima Zeng
Alexa Tompary
Anna C Schapiro
Sharon L Thompson-Schill
Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidation
eLife
episodic memory
long-term memory
consolidation
gist-based bias
reconstructive memory
title Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidation
title_full Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidation
title_fullStr Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidation
title_full_unstemmed Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidation
title_short Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidation
title_sort tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long term memory consolidation
topic episodic memory
long-term memory
consolidation
gist-based bias
reconstructive memory
url https://elifesciences.org/articles/65588
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