Option similarity modulates the link between choice and memory.

Choices made in everyday life are highly variable. Sometimes, you may find yourself choosing between two similar options (e.g., breakfast foods to eat) and other times between two dissimilar options (e.g., what to buy with a gift certificate). The goal of the present study was to understand how the similarity of choice options affects our ability to remember what we choose and what we did not choose. We hypothesized that choosing between similar as compared to dissimilar options would evoke a comparison-based strategy (evaluating options with respect to one another), fostering a relational form of encoding and leading to better memory for both the chosen and unchosen options. In Experiment 1, participants reported their strategy when choosing between pairs of similar or dissimilar options, revealing that participants were more likely to use a comparison-based strategy when faced with similar options. In Experiment 2, we tested memory after participants made choices between similar or dissimilar options, finding improved memory for both chosen and unchosen options from the similar compared to dissimilar choice trials. In Experiment 3, we examined strategy use when choosing between pairs of similar or dissimilar options and memory for these options. Replicating and extending the results of the first two experiments, we found that participants were more likely to use a comparison-based strategy when choosing between similar than dissimilar options, and that the positive effect of similarity on memory was stronger for unchosen than chosen options when controlling for strategy use. We interpret our results as evidence that option similarity impacts the mnemonic processes used during choice, altering what we encode and ultimately remember about our choices.

Aging shifts the relative contributions of episodic and semantic memory to decision-making.

Healthy aging is accompanied by well-characterized shifts in memory systems: episodic memory tends to decline with age while semantic memory remains relatively intact, with some knowledge domains strengthening. Beyond reflecting on the past, these distinct memory systems often guide decisions about the future. Yet how such age-related memory shifts influence simple value-based choices remain understudied. Here, younger (18-24 years) and older (61-75 years) adults completed a card game in which they could use task-relevant episodic memories to maximize the number of points they earned. Critically, they could also use task-irrelevant semantic memories to guide their choices. Both younger and older adults successfully used episodic memory to make decisions, but older adults did so less reliably than younger adults. Further, while younger adults strategically suppressed task-irrelevant semantic memories when a relevant episodic memory could be used, older adults used semantic memory to guide their decisions regardless of the relevance of episodic memory. We provide evidence that declining inhibitory control may play a role in how older adults arbitrate between competing memory sources when making decisions. These effects are consistent with the literature on age-related shifts in memory and cognitive control systems and add to a growing body of work on how episodic memories inform reinforcement learning and value-based decision-making. Our findings highlight how patterns of age-related memory differences can have consequences for value-based choices, which has implications for other types of decision-making, from the economic to the mundane. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Reward at encoding but not retrieval modulates memory for detailed events.

Much of the evidence suggesting that rewards improve memory performance has focused on how explicit rewards facilitate encoding of simplistic stimuli. To expand beyond this focus, the current study tested how explicit rewards presented at encoding as well as retrieval facilitate memory for information contained within complex events. In a single experimental session, participants (N = 88) encoded videos depicting naturalistic events (e.g., getting dressed) and then completed a recognition test probing their memory for different detail types (i.e., event, perceptual, or contextual) from the video stimuli. We manipulated the explicit reward associated with each video, such that accurate memory responses for half the videos were associated with high monetary incentives and half were associated with low monetary incentives. This reward manipulation was presented at either encoding or retrieval during a recognition memory test. The reward manipulation only affected memory when presented at encoding and this effect did not depend on the type of detail probed. Drift Diffusion Modelling further revealed that presenting reward information at encoding engendered greater encoding fidelity-indexed by an increase in drift rate-but did not change response caution at the time of retrieval-indexed by response threshold. Together, our results suggest that presenting reward information when encoding but not retrieving complex events has a general facilitatory effect, likely via attentional processing, on the ability to later remember precise details from the event.

The effects of emotional valence and perceived life stress on recalling personal experiences and envisioning future events.

Although it is understood that engaging in mental time travel to remember the past and imagine the future relies on similar cognitive processes, there are important differences. Notably, there is evidence that emotional valence differently affects how past and future events are accessed. Here, we explored the differential effect of emotional valence on past and future event generation in the context of personal stress. This is based on findings that an individual's current life stress -a metric of mental health-alters emotional mental time travel. In an online experiment conducted during the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, 421 participants generated specific past and future events to a series of positive and negative cues and then rated the likelihood that the event would occur in the future, the emotion conveyed in the event, and the difficulty of generating the event. Participants also completed a questionnaire estimating current life stress. We found a general bias toward generating specific positive future events that was not present when generating past events. Additionally, we found a small but significant effect of stress levels on ratings of difficulty and likelihood for events generated in response to positive cues. These results provide new insight into how an individual's current stress selectively targets the way positive life events are perceived. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The link between detail generation and eye movements when encoding and retrieving complex images.

Examining eye movement patterns when encoding and retrieving visually complex memories is useful to understand the link between visuo-perceptual processes and how associated details are represented within these memories. Here, we used images of real-world scenes (e.g., a couple grocery shopping) to examine how encoding and retrieval eye movements are linked to the details used to describe complex images during these two phases of memory. Given that memories are often elaborated upon during retrieval, we also examined whether eye-movements at retrieval related to details that were the same as those described when encoding the image (reinstated details) as well as details about the image event that were not initially described at encoding (newly generated details). Testing young healthy participants, we found that retrieval eye movements, specifically eye fixation rate, predicted reinstated details, but not newly generated details. This suggests that visuo-perceptual processes are preferentially engaged at retrieval to reactivate perceived information. At encoding, we found a relationship between eye movements and detail generation that changed over time. This relationship was positive early on in the encoding phase but changed to a negative relationship later in the phase, indicating that a unique relationship exists between activating visuo-perceptual processes during early encoding versus late encoding. Overall, our results provide new insights into how visuo-perceptual processes contribute to different components of complex memory.

The contributions of spatial context and imagery to the recollection of single words.

A number of theories of hippocampal function have placed spatial context at the center of richly recollected memories, but the subjective and objective ways that spatial context underlies the recollection of single words has been largely overlooked and underexplained. In this study, we conducted three experiments to investigate the involvement of spatial context in the recollection of single words. In all three experiments, participants encoded single words with varying features such as location and color. The subjective experience of recollection was measured using remember/know judgments and participant self-report of the types of information they recollected about the words. Objectively, recollection was measured using source memory judgments for both spatial and non-spatial features associated with the words. Our results provide evidence that spatial context frequently accompanies the recollection of single, isolated words, reviving discussions on the role of the hippocampus in spatial and detailed recollection.