Do humans use episodic memory to solve a What-Where-When memory task?
Abstract
What-Where-When (WWW) memory tasks have been used to study episodic(-like) memory in non-human animals. In this study, we investigate whether humans use episodic memory to solve such a WWW memory task. Participants are assigned to one of two treatments, in which they hide different coin types (what) in different locations (where) on two separate occasions (when). In the Active treatment, which mimics the animal situation as closely as possible, participants are instructed to memorize the WWW information; in the Passive treatment, participants are unaware of the fact that memory will be tested. In both groups, the majority of participants report using a mental time travel strategy to solve the task, and performance on a different episodic memory test significantly predicts performance on the WWW memory task. This suggests that the WWW memory task is a good test of episodic memory in humans. Participants remember locations and coins from the first hiding session better than they do those of the second hiding session, suggesting their memories may be reinforced during the second hiding session. We also investigated how well episodic memory performance predicted performance on the three aspects of the WWW memory task separately. In the Passive treatment, episodic memory performance predicts performance on all three aspects of the WWW memory task equally. However, in the Active treatment it only predicts performance on the what component. This could imply that during active encoding a different memory system is used for where and when information than during passive encoding. Encoding of what information seems to rely on episodic memory processing in both conditions.
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Humans appear to use conscious episodic memory in episodic-like memory tasks in some instances, but in others they fail the tasks altogether.
“However, although humans appear to use conscious episodic memory in episodic-like memory tasks in some instances [106], in others they fail the tasks altogether [107,108].”
From Is episodic-like memory <i>like</i> episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [106]
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- Authors
- Holland, S. M., & Smulders, T. V.
- Affiliations
- Newcastle University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Smulders, Tom V.
- ORCID
- Smulders, Tom V.
- Venue
- Animal Cognition
- Published
- 2010-07-27
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 95-102
- ISSN
- 1435-9448 (ISSN-L)
- 1435-9456
- OpenAlex
- W2127365048
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 2.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Animal Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- episodic memory, mental time travel, memory encoding, memory retrieval, spatial memory, temporal memory
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Processes, Problem Solving, Mental Recall, Task Performance and Analysis, Young Adult
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