Modifying Memory: Selectively Enhancing and Updating Personal Memories for a Museum Tour by Reactivating Them
Open accessAbstract
Memory can be modified when reactivated, but little is known about how the properties and extent of reactivation can selectively affect subsequent memory. We developed a novel museum paradigm to directly investigate reactivation-induced plasticity for personal memories. Participants reactivated memories triggered by photos taken from a camera they wore during a museum tour and made relatedness judgments on novel photos taken from a different tour of the same museum. Subsequent recognition memory for events at the museum was better for memories that were highly reactivated (i.e., the retrieval cues during reactivation matched the encoding experience) than for memories that were reactivated at a lower level (i.e., the retrieval cues during reactivation mismatched the encoding experience), but reactivation also increased false recognition of photographs depicting stops that were not experienced during the museum tour. Reactivation thus enables memories to be selectively enhanced and distorted via updating, thereby supporting the dynamic and flexible nature of memory.
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Contextual reinstatement could underlie the link between the quality of reactivation and subsequent memory effects.
“Contextual reinstatement could underlie the link between the quality of reactivation and subsequent memory effects (42).”
From Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory (2013) · cites this paper as [42]
In a previous behavioral study, the quality of memory reactivation modulates the extent to which reactivation strengthens subsequent true memories or creates false memories.
“In a previous behavioral study, we showed that the quality of memory reactivation, as indexed by an individual’s subjective sense of recollection, modulates the extent to which reactivation strengthens subsequent true memories for a recently presented target event or creates false memories of novel information encountered for the first time after the target event has already occurred (42).”
From Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory (2013) · cites this paper as [42]
In the previous behavioral study, subsequent false memories were greater for lures that followed targets that were highly reactivated.
“however, subsequent false memories were also greater for lures that followed targets that were highly reactivated.”
From Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory (2013) · cites this paper as [42]
In the previous behavioral study, subsequent true memories were improved when targets were highly reactivated compared with memories reactivated at lower levels.
“We found that subsequent true memories were improved when targets were highly reactivated (i.e., the retrieval cues during reactivation matched the encoding experience) compared with memories that were reactivated at lower levels (i.e., the retrieval cues during reactivation mismatched encoding);”
From Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory (2013) · cites this paper as [42]
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- Authors
- St. Jacques, P. L., & Schacter, D. L.
- Affiliations
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- Schacter, Daniel L.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-02-13
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 537-543
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC3805141
- OpenAlex
- W2161169061
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 4.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Harvard University
- National Institutes of Health (5r01ag008441-30)
- National Institute on Aging (R01-AG008441, AG038079, AG 08441, F32AG038079, R37AG008441)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH 060941, R01MH060941)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Keywords
- memory reactivation, personal memories, recognition memory, false recognition, memory updating, memory distortion, retrieval cues, event memory
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Cues, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Recall, Repression, Psychology, Recognition, Psychology, Young Adult, Memory, Long-Term, Memory, Episodic
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