Contamination Is “Good” for Your Memory! Further Evidence for the Adaptive View of Memory

Bonin, Patrick; Thiebaut, Gaëtan; Witt, Arnaud; Méot, Alain

doi:10.1007/s40806-019-00188-y

Cited by 35 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Additionally, after showing faces of the people who had touched the items, participants demonstrated a better memory for items paired with faces that appeared sick than items paired with pictures of faces that appeared healthy. Source memory is also increased for potentially contaminated items (Bonin et al, 2019). These findings suggest the memory system preferentially remembers potential sources of contamination.…”

Section: And Effects Of Biological Relatedness On Recallmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Over the past decade following Nairne et al's (2007) publication reporting on the survival processing effect, a large number of other mnemonic biases that appear to reflect selective pressures have been discovered. These involve biases with respect to remembering potential sources of contamination (Bonin et al, 2019;Fernandes et al, 2017;Gretz & Huff, 2019), remembering animate versus inanimate objects (Gelin, Bonin, Méot, & Bugaiska, 2018;Nairne, VanArsdall, & Cogdill, 2017;Nairne, VanArsdall, Pandeirada, Cogdill, & LeBreton, 2013), remembering suspicious characters (Hou & Liu, 2019), and remembering items relevant to raising ones child (Seitz et al, 2018) or finding a mate (Pandeirada et al, 2017; for a review, see Seitz et al, in press). These findings are suggestive of general evolutionary constraints to memory, and Seitz et al (in press) suggested there exists a positive relationship between the perceived fitness value of information and its likelihood of being remembered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the initial 2007 publication on survival processing, a number of researchers have documented mnemonic biases to the human memory system that appear to reflect evolutionary pressures. For example, concrete items (i.e., desk, chair) are better remembered if they are described as having been touched by someone who has a contagious disease rather than by a healthy individual (Bonin, Thiebaut, Witt, & Méot, 2019;Fernandes, Pandeirada, Soares, & Nairne, 2017). Additionally, after showing faces of the people who had touched the items, participants demonstrated a better memory for items paired with faces that appeared sick than items paired with pictures of faces that appeared healthy.…”

Section: And Effects Of Biological Relatedness On Recallmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Adaptive Memory: Generality of the Parent Processing Effect and Effects of Biological Relatedness on Recall

Seitz

Polack

Miller

2020

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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The adaptive memory framework posits that the human memory system is an evolved cognitive feature, in which stimuli relevant to fitness are better remembered than neutral stimuli. There is now substantial evidence that processing a neutral stimulus in terms of its relevancy to an imagined ancestral survival scenario produces enhances recall, although there is still disagreement concerning the proximate mechanisms responsible for this effect. Several other mnemonic biases have recently been discovered that similarly appear to reflect evolutionary pressures, including a bias to remember items relevant to an imagined parenting scenario. We tested the generality of this parent processing effect by varying the biological relatedness of the imagined child. We also varied the biological relatedness of a child during an imagined thirdperson survival processing scenario. Across four experiments, we found evidence that simply altering the described biological relatedness of a child in the parenting scenario and third-person survival processing scenario can affect recall, such that items are better remembered when made relevant to a biological child compared to an adopted child. How these findings inform the general adaptive memory framework is discussed.

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Section: And Effects Of Biological Relatedness On Recallmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: And Effects Of Biological Relatedness On Recallmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Adaptive Memory: Generality of the Parent Processing Effect and Effects of Biological Relatedness on Recall

Seitz

Polack

Miller

2020

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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“…adopted vs biological) can influence recall (Bonin, Gelin, Laroche, & Méot, 2019;Seitz, Polack, & Miller, 2020, but see Krause et al, 2019). Other studies have demonstrated preferential memory for items potentially contaminated by a sick individual (Bonin, Thiebaut, Witt, & Méot, 2019;Fernandes, Pandeirada, Soares, & Nairne, 2017;Gretz & Huff, 2019) and for finding a mate (Pandeirada, Fernandes, Vasconcelos, & Nairne, 2017). Taken together, these and other studies suggest that the evolutionary significance of information encoded positively influences future recallability (Seitz et al, 2019).…”

Section: Is There a Memory Bias For High-calorie Food Images?mentioning

confidence: 87%

Is there a memory bias for high calorie food images?

Bm¹,

Equita²,

Aj³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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It is unclear if, and to what extent, the human memory system is biased towards food and food relevant stimuli. Drawing upon existing demonstrations of attentional biases to high calorie food images, and findings that evolutionarily relevant stimuli are preferentially remembered, we hypothesized that images of high calorie foods would be better remembered than images of low calorie foods and nonfood items. Investigating this is important because a general bias towards remembering high calorie images might facilitate greater incentive learning towards these images which could result in cue-induced overconsumption. We tested this in two pre-registered, within-subject studies (ns = 38). In Experiment 1, using a rapid stream visual presentation procedure and recognition memory test, we found no effect of image type (high calorie, low calorie, nonfood) on recognition for previously seen images (F < 1.0). However, we did observe fewer correct rejections (i.e. more false memories) for novel low calorie images. In Experiment 2, we used a longer encoding procedure and free recall memory test and similarly failed to observe an effect of image type on recall (F < 1.0). We did discover several other factors that correlate with image memory which we discuss along with the implications of these results and directions for future research.

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“…As an example, simply imagining oneself performing fitness relevant tasks, such as surviving in the grasslands or parenting a child, while encoding information, can result in increased retention of that information (Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007;Seitz, Polack, & Miller, 2018). There are also reported biases towards remembering potential sources of contamination (Bonin, Thiebaut, Witt, & Méot, 2019;Fernandes, Pandeirada, Soares, & Nairne, 2017), future mates (Pandeirada, Fernandes, Vasconcelos, & Nairne, 2017), and potentially untrustworthy individuals (Hou & Liu, 2019;Kroneisen, 2018). Thus, it appears the evolutionary significance of encoded information potentiates its ability to be later recalled (Seitz, Blaisdell, Polack, et al, 2019).…”

Section: Special Status Of Memory Of Eatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eating Behavior as a New Frontier in Memory Research

Seitz¹,

Tomiyama²,

Blaisdell³

2020

Preprint

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The study of memory is commonly associated with neuroscience, aging, education, and eyewitness testimony. Here we discuss how eating behavior is also heavily intertwined—and yet considerably understudied in its relation to memory processes. Both are influenced by similar neuroendocrine signals (e.g., leptin and ghrelin) and are dependent on hippocampal functions. While learning processes have long been implicated in influencing eating behavior, recent research has shed light on how memory of recent eating modulates future food consumption. In humans, overweight and obesity is associated with impaired memory performance, and studies in rodents (and to a lesser extent humans) show that dietary-induced obesity causes rapid decrements to memory. Lesions to the hippocampus not only disrupt memory, but also induce obesity, highlighting a cyclic relationship between obesity and memory impairment. Enhancing memory of eating has been shown to reduce future eating and yet, very little is known about what influences memory of eating or how memory of eating differs from memory for other behaviors. We discuss recent advancements in these areas and highlight fruitful research pursuits afforded by combining the study of memory with the study of eating behavior.

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Contamination Is “Good” for Your Memory! Further Evidence for the Adaptive View of Memory

Cited by 35 publications

References 67 publications

Adaptive Memory: Generality of the Parent Processing Effect and Effects of Biological Relatedness on Recall

Adaptive Memory: Generality of the Parent Processing Effect and Effects of Biological Relatedness on Recall

Is there a memory bias for high calorie food images?

Eating Behavior as a New Frontier in Memory Research

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