Nairne James S, Pandeirada Josefa N S
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2081, USA.
Am J Psychol. 2010 Winter;123(4):381-90.
Memory researchers traditionally ignore function in favor of largely structural analyses. For example, it is well known that forming a visual image improves retention, and various proximate mechanisms have been proposed to account for the advantage (e.g., elaboration of the memory trace), but next to nothing is known about why memory evolved such sensitivities. Why did nature craft a memory system that is sensitive to imagery or the processing of meaning? Functional analyses are critical to progress in memory research for two main reasons: First, as in applied research, functional analyses provide the necessary criteria for measuring progress; second, there are good reasons to believe that modern cognitive processes continue to bear the imprint of ancestral selection pressures (i.e., cognitive systems are functionally designed). We review empirical evidence supporting the idea that memory evolved to enhance reproductive fitness; as a consequence, to maximize retention in basic and applied settings it is useful to develop encoding techniques that are congruent with the natural design of memory systems.
传统上，记忆研究者往往忽视功能，而倾向于进行大量的结构分析。例如，众所周知，形成视觉图像有助于提高记忆保持，并且已经提出了各种近似机制来解释这种优势（例如，记忆痕迹的精细化），但对于记忆为何进化出这种敏感性却几乎一无所知。为什么大自然构建了一个对图像或意义处理敏感的记忆系统？功能分析对于记忆研究的进展至关重要，主要有两个原因：第一，与应用研究一样，功能分析为衡量进展提供了必要标准；第二，有充分理由相信现代认知过程仍然留有祖先选择压力的印记（即认知系统是功能性设计的）。我们回顾了支持记忆进化以提高繁殖适应性这一观点的实证证据；因此，为了在基础和应用环境中最大限度地提高记忆保持，开发与记忆系统的自然设计相一致的编码技术是有用的。
