Generalization from episodic memories across time: A route for semantic knowledge acquisition

Sweegers, Carly C.G.; Talamini, Lucia M.

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2014.07.006

Cited by 39 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…These findings suggest that recent memories are composed of distinct episodes, but remote memories become transformed and integrated into more generalized representations of related information. In humans, behavioral work has shown that rule acquisition and use is more evident with a temporal delay (Sweegers and Talamini, 2014). Similarly, other work suggests that sleep enhances transitive inference behavior (Ellenbogen et al, 2007; Lau et al, 2010) and benefits the extraction and generalization of statistical regularities across motor and acoustic patterns (Wagner et al, 2004; Durrant et al, 2011, 2013; Batterink and Paller, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consolidation Promotes the Emergence of Representational Overlap in the Hippocampus and Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Tompary

Davachi

2017

Neuron

203

144

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Summary Structured knowledge is thought to form, in part, through the extraction and representation of regularities across overlapping experiences. However, little is known about how consolidation processes may transform novel episodic memories to reflect such regularities. In a multi-day fMRI study, participants encoded trial-unique associations that shared features with other trials. Multi-variate pattern analyses were used to measure neural similarity across overlapping and non-overlapping memories during immediate and one-week retrieval of these associations. We found that neural patterns in the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex represented the featural overlap across memories, but only after a week. Furthermore, after a week, the strength of a memory's unique episodic reinstatement during retrieval was inversely related to its representation of overlap, suggesting a trade-off between the integration of related memories and recovery of episodic details. These findings suggest that consolidation-related changes in neural representations support the gradual organization of discrete episodes into structured knowledge.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consolidation Promotes the Emergence of Representational Overlap in the Hippocampus and Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Tompary

Davachi

2017

Neuron

203

144

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Past uses of continuous retrieval reports have enabled researchers to distinguish the precision of episodic memories from their overall retrieval success 38,39 , reveal subtle memory deficits in healthy aging and in patients with altered MTL function 40 , and map separate neural contributions to different aspects of memory retrieval, such as precision, confidence, and vividness 41,42 . In contrast, most research in schematic memory tends to discretize memoranda as schema-consistent or not, using prior knowledge that participants already know, like famous faces, word pairs that are semantically related word pairs, or dot patterns that resemble letters [43][44][45] , although there are numerous exceptions 11,16,17,31 . Despite these differences, we find that images that are closer to their category's central location are more precisely remembered relative to ones that are farther away, consistent with many past observations that schemas facilitate memory for consistent information 46,1,47,48,45 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Schematic memories develop quickly, but are not expressed unless necessary

Tompary¹,

Davachi²

2020

Preprint

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Episodic memory retrieval is increasingly influenced by schematic information as memories mature, but it is unclear whether this is due to the slow formation of schemas over time, or the slow decay of the episodes. To address this, we separately probed memory for newly learned schemas as well as their influence on episodic memory decisions. In this experiment, participants encoded images from two categories, with the location of images in each category drawn from a different spatial distribution. They could thus learn schemas of category locations by encoding specific episodes. We found that images that were more consistent with these distributions were more precisely retrieved, and this schematic influence increased over time. However, memory for the schema distribution, measured using generalization to novel images, also became less precise over time. This incongruity suggests that schemas form rapidly, but their influence on episodic retrieval is dictated by the need to bolster fading memory representations.

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“…Another study found increased generalization in an object categorization task over the course of an afternoon delay in both nap and wake conditions, with no difference between the two [46]. The task assessed memory or inference for the locations of faces, where some locations were predicted by feature rules (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep Benefits Memory for Semantic Category Structure While Preserving Exemplar-Specific Information

Schapiro

McDevitt

Chen

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Semantic memory encompasses knowledge about both the properties that typify concepts (e.g. robins, like all birds, have wings) as well as the properties that individuate conceptually related items (e.g. robins, in particular, have red breasts). We investigate the impact of sleep on new semantic learning using a property inference task in which both kinds of information are initially acquired equally well. Participants learned about three categories of novel objects possessing some properties that were shared among category exemplars and others that were unique to an exemplar, with exposure frequency varying across categories. In Experiment 1, memory for shared properties improved and memory for unique properties was preserved across a night of sleep, while memory for both feature types declined over a day awake. In Experiment 2, memory for shared properties improved across a nap, but only for the lower-frequency category, suggesting a prioritization of weakly learned information early in a sleep period. The increase was significantly correlated with amount of REM, but was also observed in participants who did not enter REM, suggesting involvement of both sleep stages. The results provide the first evidence that sleep improves memory for the shared structure of object categories, while simultaneously preserving object-unique information.

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Generalization from episodic memories across time: A route for semantic knowledge acquisition

Cited by 39 publications

References 67 publications

Consolidation Promotes the Emergence of Representational Overlap in the Hippocampus and Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Consolidation Promotes the Emergence of Representational Overlap in the Hippocampus and Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Schematic memories develop quickly, but are not expressed unless necessary

Sleep Benefits Memory for Semantic Category Structure While Preserving Exemplar-Specific Information

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