a Department of Psychology , Lancaster University , Lancaster , UK.
Memory. 2014;22(1):9-18. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2012.759975. Epub 2013 Jan 17.
Previous research has demonstrated that participants remember significantly more survival-related information and more information that is processed for its survival relevance. Recent research has also shown that survival materials and processing result in more false memories, ones that are adaptive inasmuch as they prime solutions to insight-based problems. Importantly, false memories for survival-related information facilitate problem solving more than false memories for other types of information. The present study explores this survival advantage using an incidental rather than intentional memory task. Here participants rated information either in the context of its importance to a survival-processing scenario or to moving to a new house. Following this, participants solved a number of compound remote associate tasks (CRATs), half of which had the solution primed by false memories that were generated during the processing task. Results showed that (a) CRATs were primed by false memories in this incidental task, with participants solving significantly more CRATs when primed than when unprimed, (b) this effect was greatest when participants rated items for survival than moving, and (c) processing items for a survival scenario improved overall problem-solving performance even when specific problems themselves were not primed. Results are discussed with regard to adaptive theories of memory.
先前的研究表明，参与者会记住更多与生存相关的信息，以及更多因其生存相关性而被处理的信息。最近的研究还表明，生存材料和处理会产生更多的错误记忆，这些记忆是适应性的，因为它们为基于洞察力的问题提供了解决方案。重要的是，与生存相关的信息的错误记忆比其他类型的信息的错误记忆更有助于解决问题。本研究使用偶然而非有意的记忆任务来探索这种生存优势。在这里，参与者根据信息对生存处理场景的重要性或搬家的重要性对其进行评分。之后，参与者解决了一些复杂的远程联想任务（CRAT），其中一半的解决方案由在处理任务中生成的错误记忆提示。结果表明：（a）在这个偶然的任务中，CRAT 被错误记忆所提示，被提示的参与者比未被提示的参与者解决的 CRAT 显著更多；（b）当参与者为生存而不是搬家评分时，这种效果最大；（c）即使特定问题本身没有被提示，对生存场景的处理也会提高整体解决问题的能力。结果与记忆的适应性理论有关。
