[Influence of survival processing and delay on recollection and familiarity in recognition]

Surviving with story characters: What do we remember?

Readers simulate story characters' emotions, memories, and perceptual experiences. The current study consists of three experiments that investigated whether survival threat would amplify the mnemonic experience of a narrative. First, a replication study of Nairne et al. (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33 (2), 263-273, 2007) was conducted with minor methodological alternations and yielded improved recall for participants imagining themselves in a survival scenario over a moving scenario (Experiment 1). In Experiments 2 and 3, participants read stories about a character either stranded in the grasslands or moving to a foreign land. Improved recall for objects included in the story (Experiments 2 and 3) and recognition of story details (Experiment 3) was found when the character was in a survival situation. The largest effects were observed when the reader was asked to imagine themselves as the story character (Experiment 3). Overall, readers remembered survival-relevant details as if they were experiencing the story character's plight. These results extend research showing that survival processing enhances memory for word lists (e.g., Nairne et al., Psychological Science, 19 (2), 176-180, 2008).

Effects of survival processing on list method directed forgetting

Two experiments examined the effects of directed (intentional) forgetting on information processed for its survival value. Experiment 1 used the list-method directed forgetting procedure in which items processed for their relevance to survival, moving house or pleasantness were followed by the cue to remember or forget. Following the encoding of a second list, free-recall of both lists showed that survival encoding brought about greater remembering (after the remember cue) and forgetting (after the forget cue). Experiment 2 also used the list-method and manipulated mental context reinstatement prior to recall. Although this manipulation was effective in enhancing memory, more directed forgetting was again shown in the survival condition. In both experiments the effects of survival processing were shown also in free-recall "remember" (vs. "know") responses, indicative of the retrieval of associative or contextual details. The mechanisms that might underpin these were evaluated and considered in relation to future work.

Effects of survival processing and retention interval on true and false recognition in the DRM and category repetition paradigms

Two experiments examined the effects of survival processing and delay on true and related false recognition. Experiment 1 used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm and found survival processing to increase true and related false recognition. Extending the delay from 5-mins to 1-day reduced true, but not false memory. Measures of the characteristics of true and false memories showed survival processing increased "remember" and "know" responses for related false memory, "know" responses for true memory and gist processing. Experiment 2 made use of the category repetition procedure and found a broadly similar pattern of results for true memory. However, related false memory was decreased by survival processing. Except for one result, no interactions were found between encoding task and delay. Overall, survival processing produced similar or different effects on true/false memory depending on the nature of the list. The mechanisms that might underpin these are evaluated and considered in relation to future work.