Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Science. 2012 Jul 27;337(6093):485-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1221936.
How do we decide if the people we meet and the things we see are familiar or new? If something is new, we need to encode it as a memory distinct from already stored episodes, using a process known as pattern separation. If familiar, it can be used to reactivate a previously stored memory, by a process known as pattern completion. To orchestrate these conflicting processes, current models propose that the episodic memory system uses environmental cues to establish processing biases that favor either pattern separation during encoding or pattern completion during retrieval. To assess this theory, we measured how people's memory formation and decisions are influenced by their recent engagement in episodic encoding and retrieval. We found that the recent encoding of novel objects improved subsequent identification of subtle changes, a task thought to rely on pattern separation. Conversely, recent retrieval of old objects increased the subsequent integration of stored information into new memories, a process thought to rely on pattern completion. These experiments provide behavioral evidence that episodic encoding and retrieval evoke lingering biases that influence subsequent mnemonic processing.
我们如何判断遇到的人和看到的事物是熟悉还是陌生？如果是新的，我们需要将其编码为与已存储的情节不同的记忆，这个过程被称为模式分离。如果是熟悉的，它可以通过一个被称为模式完成的过程来重新激活以前存储的记忆。为了协调这些相互冲突的过程，目前的模型提出，情景记忆系统使用环境线索来建立处理偏向，有利于在编码过程中进行模式分离或在检索过程中进行模式完成。为了评估这一理论，我们测量了人们的记忆形成和决策是如何受到最近情景编码和检索的影响。我们发现，新颖物体的最近编码提高了对微妙变化的后续识别能力，这一任务被认为依赖于模式分离。相反，最近检索旧物体增加了将存储信息整合到新记忆中的后续过程，这一过程被认为依赖于模式完成。这些实验提供了行为证据，表明情景编码和检索会引发持久的偏向，从而影响随后的记忆处理。
