Why do we remember? The communicative function of episodic memory

Mice integrate conspecific and contextual information in forming social episodic-like memories under spontaneous recognition task conditions

The ability to remember unique past events (episodic memory) may be an evolutionarily conserved function, with accumulating evidence of episodic-(like) memory processing in rodents. In humans, it likely contributes to successful complex social networking. Rodents, arguably the most used laboratory models, are also rather social animals. However, many behavioural paradigms are devoid of sociality, and commonly-used social spontaneous recognition tasks (SRTs) are open to non-episodic strategies based upon familiarity. We address this gap by developing new SRT variants. Here, in object-in-context SRTs, we asked if context could be specified by the presence/absence of either a conspecific (experiment 1) or an additional local object (experiment 2). We show that mice readily used the conspecific as contextual information to distinguish unique episodes in memory. In contrast, no coherent behavioural response emerged when an additional object was used as a potential context specifier. Further, in a new social conspecific-in-context SRT (experiment 3) where environment-based change was the context specifier, mice preferably explored a more recently-seen familiar conspecific associated with contextual mismatch, over a less recently-seen familiar conspecific presented in the same context. The results argue that, in incidental SRT conditions, mice readily incorporate conspecific cue information into episodic-like memory. Thus, the tasks offer different ways to assess and further understand the mechanisms at work in social episodic-like memory processing.

Autobiographical Storytelling in Patients with Mild Alzheimer's Disease: Focused, Reflected, and Entertaining; A Comparative Study

OBJECTIVES

We assessed whether individuals with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD), despite some deficits in autobiographical memory, could effectively convey their personal experiences through storytelling.

METHODS

We invited 37 individuals with mild AD and 37 control participants to share their personal experiences. We rated these narratives based on five characteristics of storytelling: focus, reflection, entertainment, structure, and specificity.

RESULTS

Analyses demonstrated that individuals with AD conveyed more general than specific memories, and no significant differences were observed between structured and unstructured memories. Importantly, individuals with AD recounted more memories with focus than without, with reflection than without, and that were entertaining than were not. Compared with those of the control participants, the narratives of the individuals with AD were less focused, structured, and specific. However, no significant differences were observed between the two samples regarding reflection or entertainment.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Individuals with mild AD can have difficulties in retrieving specific memories, but their storytelling of personal experience can be focused, exhibit reflection, and be entertaining. Individuals with mild AD can engage in reflective and entertaining autobiographical storytelling, potentially contributing to their sense of identity and connection with others.

Detecting recollection: Human evaluators can successfully assess the veracity of others' memories

Humans have the highly adaptive ability to learn from others' memories. However, because memories are prone to errors, in order for others' memories to be a valuable source of information, we need to assess their veracity. Previous studies have shown that linguistic information conveyed in self-reported justifications can be used to train a machine-learner to distinguish true from false memories. But can humans also perform this task, and if so, do they do so in the same way the machine-learner does? Participants were presented with justifications corresponding to Hits and False Alarms and were asked to directly assess whether the witness's recognition was correct or incorrect. In addition, participants assessed justifications' recollective qualities: their vividness, specificity, and the degree of confidence they conveyed. Results show that human evaluators can discriminate Hits from False Alarms above chance levels, based on the justifications provided per item. Their performance was on par with the machine learner. Furthermore, through assessment of the perceived recollective qualities of justifications, participants were able to glean more information from the justifications than they used in their own direct decisions and than the machine learner did.

How to Become a Memory: The Individual and Collective Aspects of Mnemicity

Human adults distinguish their mental event simulations along various dimensions-most prominently according to their "mnemicity": we track whether these simulations are outcomes of past personal experiences or not (i.e., whether we are "remembering" or "imagining"). This distinction between memory and imagination is commonly thought to reflect a deep architectural distinction in the mind. Against this idea, I argue that mnemicity is not based on a fundamentalstructural difference between memories and imaginations but is instead the result of metacognitive attribution and social construction. On this attributional view, mnemicity is likely a uniquely human capacity that both serves collective functions and has been shaped by collective norms. First, on the individual level, mnemicity attribution is an outcome of metacognitive learning: it relies on acquired interpretations of the phenomenal features of mental event simulations. Such interpretations are in part acquired through interactive reminiscing with other community members. Further, how the distinction between memory and imagination is drawn is likely sensitive to cultural norms about what remembering is, when it is appropriate to claim to remember, what can be remembered, and what remembering entails. As a result, how individuals determine whether they remember or imagine is bound to be deeply enculturated. Second, mnemicity attribution solves an important collective challenge: who to grant epistemic authority about the past. Solving this challenge is important because-for humans-the past represents not just an opportunity to learn about the future but to coordinate present social realities. How a community determines such social realities both draws on individuals' remembering and in turn shapes when, what, and how individuals remember.

Comparing episodic memory outcomes from walking augmented reality and stationary virtual reality encoding experiences

Episodic Memory (EM) is the neurocognitive capacity to consciously recollect personally experienced events in specific spatio-temporal contexts. Although the relevance of spatial and temporal information is widely acknowledged in the EM literature, it remains unclear whether and how EM performance and organisation is modulated by self-motion, and by motor- and visually- salient environmental features (EFs) of the encoding environment. This study examines whether and how EM is modulated by locomotion and the EFs encountered in a controlled lifelike learning route within a large-scale building. Twenty-eight healthy participants took part in a museum-tour encoding task implemented in walking Augmented Reality (AR) and stationary Virtual Reality (VR) conditions. EM performance and organisation were assessed immediately and 48-hours after trials using a Remember/Familiar recognition paradigm. Results showed a significant positive modulation effect of locomotion on distinctive EM aspects. Findings highlighted a significant performance enhancement effect of stairway-adjacent locations compared to dead-end and mid-route stimuli-presentation locations. The results of this study may serve as design criteria to facilitate neurocognitive rehabilitative interventions of EM. The underlying technological framework developed for this study represents a novel and ecologically sound method for evaluating EM processes in lifelike situations, allowing researchers a naturalistic perspective into the complex nature of EM.

Autonoesis and episodicity: Perspectives from philosophy of memory

The idea that episodic memory is distinguished from semantic memory by the fact that it involves autonoetic consciousness, initially introduced by Tulving, has been influential not only in psychology but also in philosophy, where a variety of approaches to autonoesis and to its relationship to episodicity have been developed. This article provides a critical review of the available philosophical approaches. Distinguishing among representational, metacognitive, and epistemic accounts of autonoesis, it considers these in relation to objective and subjective conceptions of episodicity and assesses them against immediacy and source criteria that any philosophical account of autonoesis should arguably aim to satisfy. This article is categorized under: Philosophy > Psychological Capacities Philosophy > Consciousness Psychology > Memory.

A language of episodic thought?

We propose that episodic thought (i.e., episodic memory and imagination) is a domain where the language-of-thought hypothesis (LoTH) could be fruitfully applied. On the one hand, LoTH could explain the structure of what is encoded into and retrieved from long-term memory. On the other, LoTH can help make sense of how episodic contents come to play such a large variety of different cognitive roles after they have been retrieved.

Mnemicity: A Cognitive Gadget?

Episodic representations can be entertained either as "remembered" or "imagined"-as outcomes of experience or as simulations of such experience. Here, we argue that this feature is the product of a dedicated cognitive function: the metacognitive capacity to determine the mnemicity of mental event simulations. We argue that mnemicity attribution should be distinguished from other metacognitive operations (such as reality monitoring) and propose that this attribution is a "cognitive gadget"-a distinctively human ability made possible by cultural learning. Cultural learning is a type of social learning in which traits are inherited through social interaction. In the case of mnemicity, one culturally learns to discriminate metacognitive "feelings of remembering" from other perceptual, emotional, action-related, and metacognitive feelings; to interpret feelings of remembering as indicators of memory rather than imagination; and to broadcast the interpreted feelings in culture- and context-specific ways, such as "I was there" or "I witnessed it myself." We review evidence from the literature on memory development and scaffolding, metacognitive learning and teaching, as well as cross-cultural psychology in support of this view before pointing out various open questions about the nature and development of mnemicity highlighted by our account.

Can 18-Month-Olds Revise Attributed Beliefs?

Successful social interactions rely on flexibly tracking and revising others' beliefs. These can be revised prospectively, new events leading to new beliefs, or retrospectively, when realizing that an attribution may have been incorrect. However, whether infants are capable of such belief revisions is an open question. We tested whether 18-month-olds can revise an attributed FB into a TB when they learn that a person may have witnessed an event that they initially thought she could not see. Infants first observed Experimenter 1 (E1) hiding two objects into two boxes. Then E1 left the room, and the locations of the objects were swapped. Infants then accompanied Experimenter 2 (E2) to the adjacent room. In the FB-revised-to-TB condition, infants observed E1 peeking into the experimental room through a one-way mirror, whereas in the FB-stays-FB condition, they observed E1 reading a book. After returning to the experimental room E1 requested an object by pointing to one of the boxes. In the FB-stays-FB condition, most infants chose the non-referred box, congruently with the agent's FB. However, in the FB-revised-to-TB condition, most infants chose the other, referred box. Thus, 18-month-olds revised an already attributed FB after receiving evidence that this attribution might have been wrong.

Should I stay or should I go? Three-year-olds' reactions to appropriate motives to interrupt a joint activity

Understanding when it is acceptable to interrupt a joint activity is an important part of understanding what cooperation entails. Philosophical analyses have suggested that we should release our partner from a joint activity anytime the activity conflicts with fulfilling a moral obligation. To probe young children's understanding of this aspect, we investigated whether 3-year-old children (N = 60) are sensitive to the legitimacy of motives (selfish condition vs. moral condition) leading agents to intentionally interrupt their joint activity. We measured whether children protested or released their partner by scoring their reactions. Our results indicate that children did not manifest different reactions when the motive behind their partner leaving was moral than when the motive was selfish. However, our data showed a stable pattern: regardless of the partner's motives, some 3-year-olds take initiatives to release their partners from joint activity, suggesting that measuring release is a valuable tool for investigating joint action.

Developments in the functions of autobiographical memory: An advanced review

In this advanced review, the development of the three most commonly used functions of autobiographical memory-directing behavior, social bonding, and self-continuity-and the support they have received in the literature are discussed. Support for this tripartite model often comes from correlational studies that use self-report measures, but participants in these studies may not be aware that they retrieved autobiographical memories to fulfill certain goals. Not only is more experimental research needed to confirm the findings from correlational studies, this kind of research needs to be more rigorous. Moreover, the functions of the tripartite model may not be the only autobiographical memory functions that can be distinguished. For example, there is already substantial support for the emotion-regulation function. Although memories can be used for multiple functions, patterns between aspects of the event (e.g., emotional valence) or memory (e.g., specificity) and their functionality have been found. In addition, individual differences (e.g., cultural background, depression symptoms) and situational factors (e.g., is there a goal that needs to be fulfilled) may regulate the functional deployment of autobiographical memories. Future research should therefore extend its focus on the conditions in which these functions can be observed. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Memory.

The Ethics of Memory Modification: Personal Narratives, Relational Selves and Autonomy

For nearly two decades, ethicists have expressed concerns that the further development and use of memory modification technologies (MMTs)—techniques allowing to intentionally and selectively alter memories—may threaten the very foundations of who we are, our personal identity, and thus pose a threat to our well-being, or even undermine our “humaneness.” This paper examines the potential ramifications of memory-modifying interventions such as changing the valence of targeted memories and selective deactivation of a particular memory as these interventions appear to be at the same time potentially both most promising clinically as well as menacing to identity. However, unlike previous works discussing the potential consequences of MMTs, this article analyzes them in the context of the narrative relational approach to personal identity and potential issues related to autonomy. I argue that such a perspective brings to light the ethical aspects and moral issues arising from the use of MMTs that have been hidden from previously adopted approaches. In particular, this perspective demonstrates how important the social context in which an individual lives is for the ethical evaluation of a given memory-modifying intervention. I conclude by suggesting that undertaking memory modifications without taking into account the social dimension of a person’s life creates the risk that she will not be able to meet one of the basic human needs—the autonomous construction and maintenance of personal identity. Based on this conclusion, I offer some reflections on the permissibility and advisability of MMTs and what these considerations suggest for the future.

A cross-linguistic approach to children's reasoning: Turkish- and English-speaking children's use of metatalk

When collaboratively solving problems, children discuss information reliability, for example, whether claims are based on direct or indirect observation, termed as "metatalk". Unlike English in which evidential marking is optional, languages with obligatory evidential marking such as Turkish, might provide children some advantages in communicating the reliability of their claims. The current preregistered online study investigated Turkish- and English-speaking 3- and 5-year-old children's (N = 144) use of metatalk. The child and the experimenter (E) were asked to decide in which of the two houses a toy was hiding. One house had the toy's footprints. When E left the Zoom meeting, an informant told the child that the toy was in the other house without the footprints in three within-subjects conditions. In the direct-observation condition, the child witnessed the informant move the toy. In the indirect-witness condition, the informant checked both houses and said that the toy was in the other house. In the indirect-hearsay condition, the informant simply said that the toy was in the other house. When E returned, the child had to convince E about how they knew the toy was in the other house using metatalk (e.g., "I saw it move"). Turkish-speaking children used metatalk more often than did English-speaking children, especially in the direct-observation condition. In the two indirect conditions, both groups of 5-year-olds were similar in their use of metatalk, but Turkish speaking 3-year-olds produced metatalk more often than did English-speaking 3-year-olds. Thus, languages with obligatory evidential marking might facilitate children's collaborative reasoning. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Children as young as 3 years of age can produce metatalk. Turkish-speaking children produce metatalk more often than English-speaking children. The difference between the two linguistic groups is more pronounced at age 3.

Modeling the function of episodic memory in spatial learning

Episodic memory has been studied extensively in the past few decades, but so far little is understood about how it drives future behavior. Here we propose that episodic memory can facilitate learning in two fundamentally different modes: retrieval and replay, which is the reinstatement of hippocampal activity patterns during later sleep or awake quiescence. We study their properties by comparing three learning paradigms using computational modeling based on visually-driven reinforcement learning. Firstly, episodic memories are retrieved to learn from single experiences (one-shot learning); secondly, episodic memories are replayed to facilitate learning of statistical regularities (replay learning); and, thirdly, learning occurs online as experiences arise with no access to memories of past experiences (online learning). We found that episodic memory benefits spatial learning in a broad range of conditions, but the performance difference is meaningful only when the task is sufficiently complex and the number of learning trials is limited. Furthermore, the two modes of accessing episodic memory affect spatial learning differently. One-shot learning is typically faster than replay learning, but the latter may reach a better asymptotic performance. In the end, we also investigated the benefits of sequential replay and found that replaying stochastic sequences results in faster learning as compared to random replay when the number of replays is limited. Understanding how episodic memory drives future behavior is an important step toward elucidating the nature of episodic memory.

Equivalent statistics for a one-sample t-test

Recent insights into problems with common statistical practice in psychology have motivated scientists to consider alternatives to the traditional frequentist approach that compares p-values to a significance criterion. While these alternatives have worthwhile attributes, Francis (Behavior Research Methods, 40, 1524-1538, 2017) showed that many proposed test statistics for the situation of a two-sample t-test are based on precisely the same information in a given data set; and for a given sample size, one can convert from any statistic to the others. Here, we show that the same relationship holds for the equivalent of a one-sample t-test. We derive the relationships and provide an on-line app that performs the computations. A key conclusion of this analysis is that many types of tests are based on the same information, so the choice of which approach to use should reflect the intent of the scientist and the appropriateness of the corresponding inferential framework for that intent.

3-4-year-old children’s memory flexibility allows adaptation to an altered context

Imitation provides a reliable method to investigate the developing memory functions in childhood. The present study explored whether 3-4-year-old children are able to revise their previous experiences after a 1 week delay in order to adapt to an altered context. We used a combined short-term (Session 1) and delayed (Session 2) imitation paradigm based on a previous study with 2-year-olds. The constraints (target object close/far) and relatedly the relevance of using a tool in a goal attainment task (irrelevant/relevant, respectively) changed between the sessions. We found that children in Session 1 used the tool only when it was needed (relevant/object far context). After the 1 week delay when the tool was previously irrelevant and then became relevant, children remembered the irrelevant act and applied it in the altered context. When the tool lost its relevance after 1 week, children used the tool less than before, but did not fully omit it, despite its reduced efficiency. The present data with 3-year-olds was compared to a pattern of results with 2-year-olds (from a similar previous study), that allowed to discuss possible developmental transitions in memory and imitation. We propose that the flexible restoration of a formerly irrelevant act and the maintenance of a formerly successful solution indicate flexibility of preschooler’s memory when guiding imitation. This flexibility, however, interacts with children’s tendency to remain faithful to strategies that were previously ostensively demonstrated to them.

How Imagination and Memory Shape the Moral Mind

Interdisciplinary research has proposed a multifaceted view of human cognition and morality, establishing that inputs from multiple cognitive and affective processes guide moral decisions. However, extant work on moral cognition has largely overlooked the contributions of episodic representation. The ability to remember or imagine a specific moment in time plays a broadly influential role in cognition and behavior. Yet, existing research has only begun exploring the influence of episodic representation on moral cognition. Here, we evaluate the theoretical connections between episodic representation and moral cognition, review emerging empirical work revealing how episodic representation affects moral decision-making, and conclude by highlighting gaps in the literature and open questions. We argue that a comprehensive model of moral cognition will require including the episodic memory system, further delineating its direct influence on moral thought, and better understanding its interactions with other mental processes to fundamentally shape our sense of right and wrong.

A Role for the Anterior Hippocampus in Autobiographical Memory Construction Regardless of Temporal Distance

Mounting evidence suggests distinct functional contributions of the anterior and posterior hippocampus to autobiographical memory retrieval, but how these subregions function under different retrieval demands as memories age is not yet understood. Specifically, autobiographical memory retrieval is not a homogeneous process; rather, it is thought to consist of the following multiple stages: an early stage of memory construction and a later stage of detailed elaboration, which may differently engage the hippocampus over time. In the present study, we analyzed data from 40 participants (23 female/17 male) who constructed and overtly elaborated on recent and remote memories in response to picture cues in the fMRI scanner. We previously reported a temporal gradient in the posterior hippocampus during the elaboration period of autobiographical retrieval, with posterior hippocampal activation observed for recent but not remote time points. Here, we consider the previously unanalyzed construction stage of retrieval, where participants searched for and selected a memory. We found no evidence of a temporal gradient during memory construction, instead observing strong anterior hippocampus activity regardless of memory remoteness. Our findings suggest a unique contribution of the anterior hippocampus to the construction process of autobiographical retrieval over time. These findings highlight that retrieval processes, which have yet to be integrated with current models of systems consolidation, offer novel insights into hippocampal subregion function over time.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Hippocampal contributions to autobiographical memory retrieval may depend on several distinct factors including memory age and the retrieval process engaged. We previously found that the contribution of the posterior hippocampus to detailed elaborative retrieval diminishes as memories age, with no reliable activation of the anterior hippocampus over time. Here, we report that consideration of the earlier "construction" period of retrieval, where participants search for and retrieve general aspects of the memory, yielded significant anterior hippocampus activation regardless of memory age. These results provide evidence for a unique contribution of the anterior hippocampus to the constructive process of autobiographical retrieval over time and suggest that component processes of retrieval should be integrated into models of systems consolidation.

Development of a Manualized Intervention to Support Episodic Memory in Autistic Children: Elaborative Reminiscing Is Key

Episodic memory (EM) is memory for past personal experiences. EM and social development are inextricably linked, and both are impacted in autistic persons. Parents of autistic children can be taught to engage in a unique conversational style (i.e., elaborative reminiscing) to support a child's memory and social development. This article discusses the importance of EM in autism and describes a new manualized caregiver training to support EM in autistic children. An uncontrolled pre-post study design was employed to test proof of concept. Results affirmed the potential of this intervention for increasing caregivers' elaborateness and improving children's EM in a family-centered, naturalistic way. Results suggest that further treatment development and examination of effectiveness are needed. We argue that these kinds of intervention are important: not only is EM theoretically potent for social cognitive development, it is essential for a sense of self-determination, social connection, and psychological well-being.

Episodic representation: A mental models account

This paper offers a modeling account of episodic representation. I argue that the episodic system constructs mental models: representations that preserve the spatiotemporal structure of represented domains. In prototypical cases, these domains are events: occurrences taken by subjects to have characteristic structures, dynamics and relatively determinate beginnings and ends. Due to their simplicity and manipulability, mental event models can be used in a variety of cognitive contexts: in remembering the personal past, but also in future-oriented and counterfactual imagination. As structural representations, they allow surrogative reasoning, supporting inferences about their constituents which can be used in reasoning about the represented events.

Development of a Japanese version of the Autobiographical Recollection Test: convergent validity with self-reported scales and memory details

While numerous studies have examined the characteristics of specific autobiographical memories, until recently, no questionnaire has asked how individuals remember their past in general. We developed a Japanese version of the Autobiographical Recollection Test (ART), which consists of seven components (vividness, narrative coherence, reliving, rehearsal, scene, visual imagery, and life story relevance) and surveys the general characteristics of autobiographical remembering. Confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory showed that the Japanese version of the ART had sufficient psychometric properties and generally correlated as hypothesised with self-report questionnaires as a measure of convergent validity. While the short version of the Japanese ART correlated positively with the internal details (episodic elements) of autobiographical narratives, the full version did not correlate with internal details. We discuss the use of ART for future research examining individual and cultural differences in autobiographical remembering.

Preschool children's use of meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions

In collaborative decision-making, partners compare reasons behind conflicting proposals through meta-talk. We investigated UK-based preschoolers' (mixed socioeconomic status) use of meta-talk (Data collection: 2018-2020). In Study 1, 5- and 7-year-old peer dyads (N = 128, 61 girls) heard conflicting claims about an animal from two informants. One prefaced her claim with "I know"; the other with "I think". Dyads identified the more reliable informant through meta-talk ("She said she knows"). In Study 2, 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 64, 34 girls) searched for a toy with an adult partner making incorrect proposals. Children refuted this through reporting what they had witnessed (It cannot be there because "I saw it move", "she moved it"). In preschool period, children start using meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions.

Learning with friends and strangers: partner familiarity does not improve collaborative learning performance in younger and older adults

Collaborative learning with a familiar partner can reduce age-related differences in learning and memory compared to learning alone. This study compares younger and older adults' learning with familiar and unfamiliar partners to determine whether familiarity is beneficial for collaborative learning. Twenty-four younger adults aged 18-28 years and 24 older adults aged 60-80 years participated in familiar and unfamiliar pairs. Participants were asked to arrange abstract tangram shapes in a specific order on a grid over multiple trials; the directors' tangram cards were arranged in a specific order on the grid and this order was communicated to the matcher. Older adults initially took longer to complete the task, using more words to correctly arrange the tangrams. Over multiple trials, a learning effect was observed in both groups, although older adults did not perform with similar efficiency to younger adults. Familiarity had no effect on performance. These findings suggest that the familiarity of a partner does not affect learning outcomes in younger or older adults when learning in a social context. Collaborative learning may be beneficial for older adults, even if they do not know their learning partner, which may have implications for adult education and lifelong learning.

Detecting Alzheimer's Disease Using Natural Language Processing of Referential Communication Task Transcripts

BACKGROUND

People with Alzheimer's disease (AD) often demonstrate difficulties in discourse production. Referential communication tasks (RCTs) are used to examine a speaker's capability to select and verbally code the characteristics of an object in interactive conversation.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, we used contextualized word representations from Natural language processing (NLP) to evaluate how well RCTs are able to distinguish between people with AD and cognitively healthy older adults.

METHODS

We adapted machine learning techniques to analyze manually transcribed speech transcripts in an RCT from 28 older adults, including 12 with AD and 16 cognitively healthy older adults. Two approaches were applied to classify these speech transcript samples: 1) using clinically relevant linguistic features, 2) using machine learned representations derived by a state-of-art pretrained NLP transfer learning model, Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformer (BERT) based classification model.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated the superior performance of AD detection using a designed transfer learning NLP algorithm. Moreover, the analysis showed that transcripts of a single image yielded high accuracies in AD detection.

CONCLUSION

The results indicated that RCT may be useful as a diagnostic tool for AD, and that the task can be simplified to a subset of images without significant sacrifice to diagnostic accuracy, which can make RCT an easier and more practical tool for AD diagnosis. The results also demonstrate the potential of RCT as a tool to better understand cognitive deficits from the perspective of discourse production in people with AD.

Distinct environmental cues trigger spontaneous recall of past events in 3- and 4-year-old children even after long delays

Verbally reported long-term memory for past events typically improves with age. However, such findings are based exclusively on studies, where children are directly asked to recall. The present study showed that when 3- (n = 113, 59 girls) and 4-year-olds (n = 113, 62 girls), predominantly White, were brought back to a distinct laboratory-setting after either 1-, 4.5-, or 13-weeks, children-regardless of age and delay-spontaneously recalled the distinct event experienced at their first visit (all Cohen's ds > 1.00). Meanwhile, the oldest children outperformed the youngest when being asked directly to retrieve the event ( η p 2 > . 088 ). These findings suggest that spontaneous retrieval facilitated by distinct environmental cues provides a short-cut to young children's event memories.

Bifocalism is in the eye of the beholder: Social learning as a developmental response to the accuracy of others' mentalizing

This commentary argues the case for developmental psychopathology in understanding social learning. Informed by work on “epistemic disruption,” we have described difficulties with social learning associated with many forms of psychopathology. Epistemic disruption manifests in an inability to move between innovation and conformity, and arises from poor mentalizing, which generates difficulties in identifying social cues that trigger the correct stance.

Understanding, Explanation, and Active Inference

While machine learning techniques have been transformative in solving a range of problems, an important challenge is to understand why they arrive at the decisions they output. Some have argued that this necessitates augmenting machine intelligence with understanding such that, when queried, a machine is able to explain its behaviour (i.e., explainable AI). In this article, we address the issue of machine understanding from the perspective of active inference. This paradigm enables decision making based upon a model of how data are generated. The generative model contains those variables required to explain sensory data, and its inversion may be seen as an attempt to explain the causes of these data. Here we are interested in explanations of one's own actions. This implies a deep generative model that includes a model of the world, used to infer policies, and a higher-level model that attempts to predict which policies will be selected based upon a space of hypothetical (i.e., counterfactual) explanations-and which can subsequently be used to provide (retrospective) explanations about the policies pursued. We illustrate the construct validity of this notion of understanding in relation to human understanding by highlighting the similarities in computational architecture and the consequences of its dysfunction.

The effect of source claims on statement believability and speaker accountability

What is the effect of source claims (such as "I saw it" or "Somebody told me") on the believability of statements, and what mechanisms are responsible for this effect? In this study, we tested the idea that source claims impact statement believability by modulating the extent to which a speaker is perceived to be committed to (and thereby accountable for) the truth of her assertion. Across three experiments, we presented participants with statements associated with different source claims, asked them to judge how much they believed the statements, and how much the speaker was responsible if the statement turned out to be false. We found that (1) statement believability predicted speaker accountability independently of a statement's perceived prior likelihood or associated source claim; (2) being associated with a claim to first-hand ("I saw that . . .") or second-hand ("Somebody told me that . . .") evidence strengthened this association; (3) bare assertions about specific circumstances were commonly interpreted as claims to first-hand evidence; and (4) (everything else being equal) claims to first-hand evidence increased while claims to second-hand evidence decreased both statement believability and speaker accountability. These results support the idea that the believability of a statement is closely related to how committed to its truth the speaker is perceived to be and that source claims modulate the extent of this perceived commitment.

“Look at Me” – Eye Movements During Autobiographical Retrieval in Face-to-Face Interactions

Abstract. There has been a surge in social cognition and social neurosciences research comparing laboratory and real eye movements. Eye movements during the retrieval of autobiographical memories (i.e., personal memories) in laboratory situations are also receiving more attention. We compared eye movements during the retrieval of autobiographical memories using a strict laboratory design versus a design mimicking social interactions. In the first design, eye movements were recorded during autobiographical memory retrieval while participants were looking at a blank screen; in the second design, participants wore eye-tracking glasses and communicated autobiographical memories to the experimenter. Compared with the “screen” design, the “glasses” design yielded more fixations ( p < .05), shorter duration of fixations ( p < .001), more saccades ( p < .01), and longer duration of saccades ( p < .001). These findings demonstrate how eye movements during autobiographical memory retrieval differ between strict laboratory design and face-to-face interactions.

Narrative Abilities and Episodic Memory in School-Aged Children Followed by Child Protective Services

The ability to narrate routine familiar events develops gradually during middle childhood, in increasingly higher levels of coherence and temporal cohesion. Improvements in episodic memory are also observed, reflecting children’s increasing ability to recall specific circumstances of past events and personal experiences. Even though several studies have evaluated children’s narrative abilities and episodic memory, little information is available regarding the children exposed to risks that justify their referral to Child Protective Services (CPS). The current study analysed children’s narrative abilities and episodic memory performance, according to the circumstances related to the referral to CPS. Event schema representation, narrative coherence, narrative temporal cohesion, and episodic memory concerning routine and specific personal events in family context were analysed in a sample of 56 school-aged children followed by the CPS in Portugal. Children referred to CPS due to disruptive behaviour presented higher episodic memory performance, compared to those exposed to domestic violence, neglect, and abuse. No significant differences were found between groups regarding narrative abilities related to familiar routine events. Results highlight the relevance of evaluating the adverse circumstances that lead to CPS referral, considering the levels of risk and danger involved, given its differential effects on children’s episodic memory development.

Brain Functional Correlates of Episodic Memory Using an Ecological Free Recall Task

Episodic Memory (EM) allows us to revive a past event through mental time-travel. The neural correlates of memories recollection have been identified in hippocampal regions and multiple neocortical areas, but few neuroimaging studies have used an ecological task such as a free recall of a structured story. Using an ecological fMRI-free recall (FR) task, we aimed to investigate the relevant recruitment of the brain networks associated with the story recollection process and its performance. Fourteen healthy participants listened to a brief story and were tested for Immediate-Recall (IR), a task that is widely used in a neuropsychological evaluation. Then, the subjects underwent an fMRI session, where they had to perform a free recall (FR) of the story subvocally. Finally, the participants were tested for Delayed-Recall (DR). IR and DR scores were significantly (r = 0.942; p < 0.001) correlated. FR enhanced the activity of the Language, the Left Executive Control, the Default Mode and the Precuneus brain networks, with the strongest BOLD signal localized in the left Angular Gyrus (AG) (p < 0.05; FWE-corrected). Furthermore, the story recall performance covaried with specific network activation patterns and the recruitment of the left anterior/posterior AG correlated, respectively, with higher/lower performance scores (p > 0.05). FR seems to be a promising task to investigate ecologically the neural correlates of EM. Moreover, the recruitment of the anterior AG might be a marker for an optimal functioning of the recall process. Preliminary outcomes lay the foundation for the investigation of the brain networks in the healthy and pathological elderly population during FR.

The Radically Embodied Conscious Cybernetic Bayesian Brain: From Free Energy to Free Will and Back Again

Drawing from both enactivist and cognitivist perspectives on mind, I propose that explaining teleological phenomena may require reappraising both "Cartesian theaters" and mental homunculi in terms of embodied self-models (ESMs), understood as body maps with agentic properties, functioning as predictive-memory systems and cybernetic controllers. Quasi-homuncular ESMs are suggested to constitute a major organizing principle for neural architectures due to their initial and ongoing significance for solutions to inference problems in cognitive (and affective) development. Embodied experiences provide foundational lessons in learning curriculums in which agents explore increasingly challenging problem spaces, so answering an unresolved question in Bayesian cognitive science: what are biologically plausible mechanisms for equipping learners with sufficiently powerful inductive biases to adequately constrain inference spaces? Drawing on models from neurophysiology, psychology, and developmental robotics, I describe how embodiment provides fundamental sources of empirical priors (as reliably learnable posterior expectations). If ESMs play this kind of foundational role in cognitive development, then bidirectional linkages will be found between all sensory modalities and frontal-parietal control hierarchies, so infusing all senses with somatic-motoric properties, thereby structuring all perception by relevant affordances, so solving frame problems for embodied agents. Drawing upon the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference framework, I describe a particular mechanism for intentional action selection via consciously imagined (and explicitly represented) goal realization, where contrasts between desired and present states influence ongoing policy selection via predictive coding mechanisms and backward-chained imaginings (as self-realizing predictions). This embodied developmental legacy suggests a mechanism by which imaginings can be intentionally shaped by (internalized) partially-expressed motor acts, so providing means of agentic control for attention, working memory, imagination, and behavior. I further describe the nature(s) of mental causation and self-control, and also provide an account of readiness potentials in Libet paradigms wherein conscious intentions shape causal streams leading to enaction. Finally, I provide neurophenomenological handlings of prototypical qualia including pleasure, pain, and desire in terms of self-annihilating free energy gradients via quasi-synesthetic interoceptive active inference. In brief, this manuscript is intended to illustrate how radically embodied minds may create foundations for intelligence (as capacity for learning and inference), consciousness (as somatically-grounded self-world modeling), and will (as deployment of predictive models for enacting valued goals).

The evolution of strongly-held group identities through agent-based cooperation

Identity fusion represents a strongly-held personal identity that significantly overlaps with that of a group, and is the current best explanation as to why individuals become empowered to act with extreme self-sacrifice for a group of non-kin. This is widely seen and documented, yet how identity fusion is promoted by evolution is not well-understood, being seemingly counter to the selfish pursuit of survival. In this paper we extend agent-based modelling to explore how and why identity fusion can establish itself in an unrelated population with no previous shared experiences. Using indirect reciprocity to provide a framework for agent interaction, we enable agents to express their identity fusion towards a group, and observe the effects of potential behaviours that are incentivised by a heightened fusion level. These build on the social psychology literature and involve heightened sensitivity of fused individuals to perceived hypocritical group support from others. We find that simple self-referential judgement and ignorance of perceived hypocrites is sufficient to promote identity fusion and this is easily triggered by a sub-group of the population. Interestingly the self-referential judgement that we impose is an individual-level behaviour with no direct collective benefit shared by the population. The study provides clues, beyond qualitative and observational studies, as to how hypocrisy may have established itself to reinforce the collective benefit of a fused group identity. It also provides an alternative perspective on the controversial proposition of group selection - showing how fluidity between an individual's reputation and that of a group may function and influence selection as a consequence of identity fusion.

Extensive long-term verbal memory training is associated with brain plasticity

The human brain has a remarkable capacity to store a lifetime of information through visual or auditory routes. It excels and exceeds any artificial memory system in mixing and integrating multiple pieces of information encoded. In this study, a group of verbal memory experts was evaluated by multiple structural brain analysis methods to record the changes in the brain structure. The participants were professional Hindu pandits (priests/scholars) trained in reciting Vedas and other forms of Hindu scriptures. These professional Vedic priests are experts in memorization and recitation of oral texts with precise diction. Vedas are a collection of hymns. It is estimated that there are more than 20,000 mantras and shlokas in the four Vedas. The analysis included the measurement of the grey and white matter density, gyrification, and cortical thickness in a group of Vedic pandits and comparing these measures with a matched control group. The results revealed an increased grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) in the midbrain, pons, thalamus, parahippocampus, and orbitofrontal regions in pandits. The whole-brain corelation analysis using length of post-training  teaching duration showed significant correlation with the left angular gyrus. We also found increased gyrification in the insula, supplementary motor area, medial frontal areas, and increased cortical thickness (CT) in the right temporal pole and caudate regions of the brain. These findings, collectively, provide unique information regarding the association between crucial memory regions in the brain and long-term practice of oral recitation of scriptures from memory with the proper diction that also involved controlled breathing.

Dual strategies in human confidence judgments

Although confidence is commonly believed to be an essential element in decision-making, it remains unclear what gives rise to one's sense of confidence. Recent Bayesian theories propose that confidence is computed, in part, from the degree of uncertainty in sensory evidence. Alternatively, observers can use physical properties of the stimulus as a heuristic to confidence. In the current study, we developed ideal observer models for either hypothesis and compared their predictions against human data obtained from psychophysical experiments. Participants reported the orientation of a stimulus, and their confidence in this estimate, under varying levels of internal and external noise. As predicted by the Bayesian model, we found a consistent link between confidence and behavioral variability for a given stimulus orientation. Confidence was higher when orientation estimates were more precise, for both internal and external sources of noise. However, we observed the inverse pattern when comparing between stimulus orientations: although observers gave more precise orientation estimates for cardinal orientations (a phenomenon known as the oblique effect), they were more confident about oblique orientations. We show that these results are well explained by a strategy to confidence that is based on the perceived amount of noise in the stimulus. Altogether, our results suggest that confidence is not always computed from the degree of uncertainty in one's perceptual evidence but can instead be based on visual cues that function as simple Heuristics to confidence.

The effect of disagreement on children's source memory performance

Source representations play a role both in the formation of individual beliefs as well as in the social transmission of such beliefs. Both of these functions suggest that source information should be particularly useful in the context of interpersonal disagreement. Three experiments with an identical design (one original study and two replications) with 3- to 4-year-old-children (N = 100) assessed whether children's source memory performance would improve in the face of disagreement and whether such an effect interacts with different types of sources (first- vs. second-hand). In a 2 x 2 repeated-measures design, children found out about the contents of a container either by looking inside or being told (IV1). Then they were questioned about the contents of the container by an interlocutor puppet who either agreed or disagreed with their answer (IV2). We measured children's source memory performance in response to a free recall question (DV1) followed by a forced-choice question (DV2). Four-year-olds (but not three-year-olds) performed better in response to the free recall source memory question (but not the forced-choice question) when their interlocutor had disagreed with them compared to when it had agreed with them. Children were also better at recalling 'having been told' than 'having seen'. These results demonstrate that by four years of age, source memory capacities are sensitive to the communicative context of assertions and serve social functions.

Shared event memory in aging: Across-participants similarity of vividness judgements decreases with age

When they remember the same events, humans recollect common episodic traces. For making vividness judgements, older adults rely less than young adults on retrieved episodic details. Here, we examined the similarity of the subjective experience of remembering and the associated memory content across participants and we investigated age-effects. Young and older adults studied pictures associated with labels. At retrieval, participants judged the vividness of their memories and recalled pictures details. We examined the similarity of vividness judgements and memory recall across-participants. Across-participants similarity in vividness judgements was higher in young than in older adults, while no age-difference in the similarity of the richness of memory recall between participants was found. Together, these findings suggest that older adults' vividness ratings are less similar from one participant to another than those of young adults, which may be explained by how older adults use memory details to frame their sense of memory vividness.

Couple Relationships Are Associated With Increased REM Sleep-A Proof-of-Concept Analysis of a Large Dataset Using Ambulatory Polysomnography

Background/Objectives: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is associated with memory consolidation and several health effects including stress response, mental health, and longevity. Recently, it has been shown that regularly co-sleeping couples have increased and stabilized REM sleep when co-sleeping as compared to sleeping individually. However, it remained unclear whether this is due to a specific effect of altering the usual sleeping environment by partner deprivation or due to a generalizable REM-sleep promoting effect of couple relationships. The present study aims to clarify this ambiguity. Methods: Married or never married individuals were taken from the Sleep Heart Health Study (n = 5,804) and matched regarding sociodemographic and health parameters. Matching was done using propensity score matching (1:1, nearest neighbor) and resulted in two groups of n = 69 each (married vs. never married). After confirmation of successful matching, samples were compared regarding REM sleep and other polysomnographic parameters (paired Students t-tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests). Results: Married individuals showed significantly higher levels of total and relative REM sleep as compared to never married individuals (all p's ≤ 0.003). Neither other sleep stages nor REM-sleep fragmentation differed between groups (all p's ≥ 0.29). Results regarding number of sleep cycles were ambiguous. Conclusion: This is the first between-subjects study to show that couple relationships are associated with increased REM sleep. This finding represents a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for the previously hypothesized self-enhancing feedback loop of REM sleep and sociality as well as for REM-sleep promotion as a mechanism through which couple relationships prevent mental illness.

The Truth Is Out There: Accuracy in Recall of Verifiable Real-World Events

How accurate is memory? Although people implicitly assume that their memories faithfully represent past events, the prevailing view in research is that memories are error prone and constructive. Yet little is known about the frequency of errors, particularly in memories for naturalistic experiences. Here, younger and older adults underwent complex real-world experiences that were nonetheless controlled and verifiable, freely recalling these experiences after days to years. As expected, memory quantity and the richness of episodic detail declined with increasing age and retention interval. Details that participants did recall, however, were highly accurate (93%–95%) across age and time. This level of accuracy far exceeded comparatively low estimations among memory scientists and other academics in a survey. These findings suggest that details freely recalled from one-time real-world experiences can retain high correspondence to the ground truth despite significant forgetting, with higher accuracy than expected given the emphasis on fallibility in the field of memory research.

Communicating tailored risk information of cancer treatment side effects: Only words or also numbers?

BACKGROUND

The increased availability of patient reported outcome data makes it feasible to provide patients tailored risk information of cancer treatment side effects. However, it is unclear how such information influences patients' risk interpretations compared to generic population-based risks, and which message format should be used to communicate such individualized statistics.

METHODS

A web-based experiment was conducted in which participants (n = 141) read a hypothetical treatment decision-making scenario about four side effect risks of adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced colon cancer. Participants were cancer patients or survivors who were recruited from an online Dutch cancer patient panel. All participants received two tailored risks (of which the reference class was based on their age, gender and tumor stage) and two generic risks conveying the likelihood of experiencing the side effects. The risks were presented either in words-only ('common' and 'very common'), or in a combination of words and corresponding numerical estimates ('common, 10 out of 100' and 'very common, 40 out of 100'). Participants' estimation of the probability, accuracy of their estimation, and perceived likelihood of occurrence were primary outcomes. Perceived personal relevance and perceived uncertainty were secondary outcomes.

RESULTS

Tailored risks were estimated as higher and less accurate than generic risks, but only when they were presented in words; Such differences were not found in the verbal and numerical combined condition. Although tailoring risks did not impact participants' perceived likelihood of occurrence, tailored risks were perceived as more personally relevant than generic risks in both message formats. Finally, tailored risks were perceived as less uncertain than generic risks, but only in the verbal-only condition.

CONCLUSIONS

Considering current interest in the use of personalized decision aids for improving shared decision-making in oncology, it is important that clinicians consider how tailored risks of treatment side effects should be communicated to patients. We recommend both clinicians who communicate probability information during consultations, and decision aid developers, that verbal descriptors of tailored risks should be supported by numerical estimates of risks levels, to avoid overestimation of risks.

Altercentric Cognition: How Others Influence Our Cognitive Processing

Humans are ultrasocial, yet, theories of cognition have often been occupied with the solitary mind. Over the past decade, an increasing volume of work has revealed how individual cognition is influenced by the presence of others. Not only do we rapidly identify others in our environment, but we also align our attention with their attention, which influences what we perceive, represent, and remember, even when our immediate goals do not involve coordination. Here, we refer to the human sensitivity to others and to the targets and content of their attention as 'altercentrism'; and aim to bring seemingly disparate findings together, suggesting that they are all reflections of the altercentric nature of human cognition.

Discrete confidence levels revealed by sequential decisions

Humans can meaningfully express their confidence about uncertain events. Normatively, these beliefs should correspond to Bayesian probabilities. However, it is unclear whether the normative theory provides an accurate description of the human sense of confidence, partly because the self-report measures used in most studies hinder quantitative comparison with normative predictions. To measure confidence objectively, we developed a dual-decision task in which the correctness of a first decision determines the correct answer of a second decision, thus mimicking real-life situations in which confidence guides future choices. While participants were able to use confidence to improve performance, they fell short of the ideal Bayesian strategy. Instead, behaviour was better explained by a model with a few discrete confidence levels. These findings question the descriptive validity of normative accounts, and suggest that confidence judgments might be based on point estimates of the relevant variables, rather than on their full probability distributions.

Narrative characteristics of autobiographical memory predict expectations of narrator gender

Gender differences in autobiographical memory have been documented in various domains. The current study attempts to sharpen an understanding of extant gender differences in autobiographical memory by considering listener expectations, contributing to a sociocultural model. Across three studies (a pilot and two separate data collections) a narrative database was created. Narratives were coded for variables that have been shown to differ by gender, including emotion, connectedness to others, factual and interpretive elaboration, and thematic coherence. Participants read narratives and assessed if the narrator was male or female, indicating their confidence. In the pilot study and study 1, narrative features consistently predicted participant's assessments of narrator gender in two separate methods using the same narratives. In study 2, new narratives were used, showing replicability of the method and avoiding potential confounds of naturally occurring differences in study 1 and pilot data. More emotion words predicted higher likelihood of assessing a female narrator. Results support the use of such a methodology as an innovative way to examine gender-based listener expectations in autobiographical memory. They can be used for further theorising about the source of gender differences in this domain of memory that represents a combination of cognitive and social processes.

The Phenomenology of Remembering Is an Epistemic Feeling

This article aims to provide a psychologically informed philosophical account of the phenomenology of episodic remembering. The literature on epistemic or metacognitive feelings has grown considerably in recent years, and there are persuasive reasons, both conceptual and empirical, in favor of the view that the phenomenology of remembering-autonoetic consciousness, as Tulving influentially referred to it, or the feeling of pastness, as we will refer to it here-is an epistemic feeling, but few philosophical treatments of this phenomenology as an epistemic feeling have so far been proposed. Building on insights from the psychological literature, we argue that a form of feeling-based metacognition is involved in episodic remembering and develop an integrated metacognitive feeling-based view that addresses several key aspects of the feeling of pastness, namely, its status as a feeling, its content, and its relationship to the first-order memories the phenomenology of which it provides.