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...
Main Authors: | , , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2021-07-01
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Series: | eLife |
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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. |
first_indexed | 2024-12-10T05:03:10Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-a8e2a8fb266041eebeb22dbcc53faaee |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2050-084X |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-10T05:03:10Z |
publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
record_format | Article |
series | eLife |
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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