Schematic memories develop quickly, but are not expressed unless necessary
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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 forgetting 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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Adults' generalization relied on remembering specific item-context representations.
“Adults’ generalization relied on remembering specific item-context representations, consistent with the notion that rapid generalization relies on retrieving specific instances 7,8, and that there was no generalization-specificity trade off 28,29”
From Contingency of semantic generalization on episodic specificity varies across development (2021) · cites this paper as [8]
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Contingency of semantic generalization on episodic specificity varies across development
Ngo, C. T., Benear, S. L., Popal, H., Olson, I. R., & Newcombe, N. S. (2021) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.088 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Tracking the relation between gist and item memory over the course of long-term memory consolidation
Zeng, T., Tompary, A., Schapiro, A. C., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2021) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.65588 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Self-citationMoscovitch, M., & Gilboa, A. (2022) · Faculty Reviews · doi:10.12703/r/11-33 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
- Authors
- Tompary, A., Zhou, W., & Davachi, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- New York University (US)
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- Tompary, Alexa
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2020-10-12
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 16968-16968
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7550328
- OpenAlex
- W3092562086
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 4.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5R01MH074692-12)
- 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 retrieval, schema formation, memory generalization, memory precision, forgetting
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Generalization, Psychological, Humans, Male, Photic Stimulation, Mental Recall, Time Factors, Recognition, Psychology, Young Adult, Memory, Episodic
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