LMA Seminar, Dr. Sam Berens
Dissociating memory accessibility and precision in forgetting
Abstract
Forgetting involves the loss of information over time; however, we know little about what form this information loss takes. Do memories become less precise over time, or do they instead become less accessible? Here we assessed memory for word–location associations across four days, testing whether forgetting involves losses in precision versus accessibility and whether such losses are modulated by learning a generalizable pattern. We show that forgetting involves losses in memory accessibility with no changes in memory precision. When participants learned a set of related word–location associations that conformed to a general pattern, we saw a strong trade-off; accessibility was enhanced, whereas precision was reduced. However, this trade-off did not appear to be modulated by time or confer a long-term increase in the total amount of information maintained in memory. Our results place theoretical constraints on how models of forgetting and generalization account for time-dependent memory processes. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0888-8
Bio
Sam is a research scientist based within the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex. His research focuses on the neuroscience of learning and memory, specifically, how we learn general patterns [1,2], new vocabulary [3], and the layout of unfamiliar places [4,5]. He has also investigated what kinds of information are forgotten with time and why this happens [6]. Sam uses a variety of research methods including computational modelling of behavioural and functional neuroimaging data. Currently, he is employed on a European Research Council Consolidator Grant awarded to Prof Chris Bird.
[1] https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22688
[2] https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.11.455977
[3] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.02.042
[4] https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01654
[5] https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-020-00811-8
[6] https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0888-8
