Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2016 Jul;11(4):496-511. doi: 10.1177/1745691616635613.
A few seconds of survival processing, during which people assess the relevance of information to a survival situation, produces particularly good retention. One interpretation of this benefit is that our memory systems are optimized to process and retain fitness-relevant information. Such a "tuning" may exist, in part, because our memory systems were shaped by natural selection, using a fitness-based criterion. However, recent research suggests that traditional mnemonic processes, such as elaborative processing, may play an important role in producing the empirical benefit. Boundary conditions have been demonstrated as well, leading some to dismiss evolutionary interpretations of the phenomenon. In this article, we discuss the current state of the evolutionary account and provide a general framework for evaluating evolutionary and purportedly nonevolutionary interpretations of mnemonic phenomena. We suggest that survival processing effects are best viewed within the context of a general survival optimization system, designed by nature to help organisms deal with survival challenges. An important component of survival optimization is the ability to simulate activities that help to prevent or escape from future threats which, in turn, depends in an important way on accurate retrospective remembering of survival-relevant information.
几秒钟的生存处理时间，在此期间人们评估信息与生存情况的相关性，会产生特别好的记忆保留效果。对这种益处的一种解释是，我们的记忆系统经过优化，能够处理和保留与健康相关的信息。这种“调谐”可能部分存在，因为我们的记忆系统是通过自然选择，使用基于适应性的标准形成的。然而，最近的研究表明，传统的记忆过程，如详细处理，可能在产生经验益处方面发挥重要作用。边界条件也得到了证明，这导致一些人否定了对这种现象的进化解释。在本文中，我们讨论了进化解释的现状，并提供了一个评估记忆现象的进化和非进化解释的一般框架。我们认为，生存处理效应最好在一个由自然设计的通用生存优化系统的背景下进行观察，该系统旨在帮助生物体应对生存挑战。生存优化的一个重要组成部分是模拟有助于预防或逃避未来威胁的活动的能力，而这反过来又在很大程度上依赖于对生存相关信息的准确回顾性记忆。
