The survival processing effect in episodic memory in older adults and stroke patients.

In the present study, we tested whether processing information in the context of an ancestral survival scenario enhances episodic memory performance in older adults and in stroke patients. In an online study (Experiment 1), healthy young and older adults rated words according to their relevance to an ancestral survival scenario, and subsequent free recall performance was compared to a pleasantness judgment task and a moving scenario task in a within-subject design. The typical survival processing effect was replicated: Recall rates were highest in the survival task, followed by the moving and the pleasantness judgment task. Although older adults showed overall lower recall rates, there was no evidence for differences between the age groups in the condition effects. Experiment 2 was conducted in a neurological rehabilitation clinic with a sample of patients who had suffered from a stroke within the past 5 months. On the group level, Experiment 2 revealed no significant difference in recall rates between the three conditions. However, when accounting for overall memory abilities and executive function, independently measured in standardized neuropsychological tests, patients showed a significant survival processing effect. Furthermore, only patients with high executive function scores benefitted from the scenario tasks, suggesting that intact executive function may be necessary for a mnemonic benefit. Taken together, our results support the idea that the survival processing task - a well-studied task in the field of experimental psychology - may be incorporated into a strategy to compensate for memory dysfunction.

Does source reliability moderate the survival processing effect? The role of linguistic markers as reliability cues.

Adaptive memory retains information that would increase survival chances and reproductive success, resulting in the survival processing effect. Less is known about whether the reliability of the information interacts with the survival processing effect. From an adaptive point, information from reliable sources should lead to better encoding of information, particularly in a survival context. In Turkish, specific linguistic components called evidentiality markers encode whether the information presented is firsthand (direct) or not (indirect), providing insight into source reliability. In two experiments, we examined the effect of evidentiality markers on recall across survival and nonsurvival (moving) contexts, predicting that the survival processing effect would be stronger for information marked with evidentiality markers indicating direct information. Results of both experiments yielded a robust survival processing effect, as the sentences processed for their relevance to survival were better remembered than those processed for their relevance to nonsurvival events. Yet the marker type did not affect retention, regardless of being tested as a between- or within-subject factor. Specifically, the survival processing effect persisted even with evidentiality markers indicating indirect information, which suggests that the processing of survival-related information may be privileged even if potentially unreliable. We discuss these results in the context of recent studies of the interaction of language with memory.

Survival processing occupies the central bottleneck of cognitive processing: A psychological refractory period analysis.

Words judged for relevance in a survival situation are remembered better than words judged for relevance in a nonsurvival context. This survival processing effect has been explained by selective tuning of human memory during evolution to process and retain information specifically relevant for survival. According to the richness-of-encoding hypothesis the survival processing effect arises from a domain-general mechanism-namely, a particularly rich and distinct form of encoding. This form of information processing is effortful and requires limited cognitive capacities. In our experiment, we used the well-established psychological refractory period framework in conjunction with the effect propagation logic to assess the role of central cognitive resources for the survival processing effect. Our data demonstrate that the survival memory advantage indeed relies on the capacity-limited central stage of cognitive processing. Thus, rating words in the context of a survival scenario involves central processing resources to a greater amount than rating words in a nonsurvival control condition. We discuss implications for theories of the survival processing effect.

Survival processing and directed forgetting: enhanced memory for both to-be-remembered and to-be-forgotten information.

In a recently published study, (Parker, A., Parkin, A., & Dagnall, N. (2021). Effects of survival processing on list method directed forgetting. Memory (Hove, England), 29(5), 645-661) examined directed forgetting in a survival processing context using the list-method directed forgetting procedure. (Parker, A., Parkin, A., & Dagnall, N. (2021). Effects of survival processing on list method directed forgetting. Memory (Hove, England), 29(5), 645-661) found that the costs of directed forgetting were greater when engaging in survival processing than when making moving relevance or pleasantness ratings. However, according to most current accounts of directed forgetting, engaging in survival processing should not have enhanced the directed forgetting effect but rather should not have impacted the directed forgetting effect. In the present study, we further investigated how survival processing impacts directed forgetting using both the list (Experiment 1) and item method of directed forgetting (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we did not replicate the findings of (Parker, A., Parkin, A., & Dagnall, N. (2021). Effects of survival processing on list method directed forgetting. Memory (Hove, England), 29(5), 645-661) - that the directed forgetting effect is enhanced when engaging in survival processing. Rather, we demonstrated that making survival ratings and moving ratings yielded a similar cost of directed forgetting for List 1 items. In Experiment 2, survival processing provided an overall memory benefit (but not when recalling to-be-remembered and to-be-forgotten items in separate recall tests) but did not differentially impact to-be-remembered and to-be-forgotten words. Thus, we did not find evidence that survival processing influences directed forgetting.

Are the main effects of the will to exist, live, survive and fight on optimizing executive function due to its optimizing self-motivation? A longitudinal study.

The study aims to identify the mechanisms underlying the findings that will to exist, live, survive and fight (WTELS-F) optimizes executive functions. Defining executive functions (EF) as having cold (working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility) and hot (e.g., motivation) components, we hypothesized that WTELS-F affects executive functions positively via two pathways. The first pathway is through the hot executive function (motivation), and the second is via survival or existential processing. In a longitudinal study of 228 adult participants two times with ten weeks in between, we used measures for WTELS-F, working memory, inhibition, shift/cognitive flexibility, and self-motivation. We tested the structural validity of the four factors' executive function by exploratory factor analysis in time 1 data and confirmatory factor analysis in time 2 data. We conducted structural equation modeling WTELS-F change as a latent variable predicted by the change in its three components between times 1 and 2., affecting changes in self-motivation (the hot EF), and changes in the latent variable of cold EF as predicted by changes in working memory, inhibition, and shift. Results indicated that the model of EF fit the data well without modification. WTELS-F significantly affected self-motivation (the hot EF) and the cold EF longitudinally. It had further mediated effects on cold EF via its impact on self-motivation. The results provided evidence for the two pathways hypothesis of the effects of WTELS-F on EF. The conceptual and clinical implications of these findings were discussed.

The effect of survival processing on memory for pictures depends on how memory is tested.

ABSTRACTTwo experiments investigated the effects of survival processing on memory for pictures of objects. In experiment 1, participants were presented with 32 pictures of common objects and rated them for their relevance to a survival scenario, a moving home scenario, or for pleasantness. In a surprise recall test, participants in the survival condition recalled more of the verbal labels of the objects than participants in the moving and pleasantness conditions. In experiment 2, participants rated 64 pictures of objects in survival, moving home, or pleasantness conditions. Memory for visual detail was assessed using a forced-choice recognition test in which participants had to decide which of two highly similar pictures was the one they rated at study. In contrast to the results of experiment 1, correct recognition scores were highest in the pleasantness condition and lowest in the survival condition. This pattern suggests that survival processing enhances memory for objects but not for precise visual detail. The findings are consistent with the view that rating objects for their survival value directs attention to the potential uses of the objects. They also emphasise the importance of the match between encoding and retrieval processes in the survival processing paradigm.

Surviving with story characters: What do we remember?

Readers simulate story characters' emotions, memories, and perceptual experiences. The current study consists of three experiments that investigated whether survival threat would amplify the mnemonic experience of a narrative. First, a replication study of Nairne et al. (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33 (2), 263-273, 2007) was conducted with minor methodological alternations and yielded improved recall for participants imagining themselves in a survival scenario over a moving scenario (Experiment 1). In Experiments 2 and 3, participants read stories about a character either stranded in the grasslands or moving to a foreign land. Improved recall for objects included in the story (Experiments 2 and 3) and recognition of story details (Experiment 3) was found when the character was in a survival situation. The largest effects were observed when the reader was asked to imagine themselves as the story character (Experiment 3). Overall, readers remembered survival-relevant details as if they were experiencing the story character's plight. These results extend research showing that survival processing enhances memory for word lists (e.g., Nairne et al., Psychological Science, 19 (2), 176-180, 2008).

Survival processing advantage demonstrated with virtual reality-based survival environment: A promising tool for survival processing research.

Many studies have been conducted to demonstrate the survival processing advantage (SPA) as an evolutionary-oriented memory effect. But few studies were conducted to demonstrate this effect in real-life or simulated survival environments. This study tested whether the SPA could be replicated in a survival virtual reality environment (VRE). In Experiment 1, the SPAs were measured in VREs (survival grasslands, survival battlefield, nonsurvival moving) in which Experiment 1A used the standard long instructions and Experiment 1B used the modified short instructions. In Experiment 2, the SPAs were measured again with the scenarios corresponding to the VREs used in Experiment 1A. All experiments demonstrated typical SPAs, suggesting that the survival VRE is a reliable tool in designing and delivering a survival situation. The potential problems of applying survival VRE to survival processing research are discussed at the end.

Adaptive Education: Learning and Remembering with a Stone-Age Brain.

Educators generally accept that basic learning and memory processes are a product of evolution, guided by natural selection. Less well accepted is the idea that ancestral selection pressures continue to shape modern memory functioning. In this article, I review evidence suggesting that attention to nature's criterion-the enhancement of fitness-is needed to explain fully how and why people remember. Thinking functionally about memory, and adopting an evolutionary perspective in the laboratory, has led to recent discoveries with clear implications for learning in the classroom. For example, our memory systems appear to be tuned to animacy (the distinction between living and nonliving things) which, in turn, can play a role in enhancing foreign language acquisition. Effective learning management systems need to align with students' prior knowledge, skill, and interest levels, but also with the inherent content biases or "tunings" that are representative of all people.

Varying retrieval conditions to study survival processing.

The survival processing advantage is a mnemonic benefit resulting from processing items for their relevance to survival. One explanation of the survival processing advantage is the richness-of-encoding hypothesis: Survival processing enhances retention by generating ideas (elaborative and distinctive processing), increasing the number of retrieval cues. Without retrieval, encoding is futile. Hence, the present experiments varied retrieval conditions - via transfer appropriate processing (TAP) tasks - predicting that the survival processing advantage could be reversed. In Experiment 1a, reducing the transfer appropriateness of survival processing caused significantly lower recognition scores after survival processing than after processing of word associates. Experiment 1b replicated a survival processing advantage and found a survival processing disadvantage. In Experiment 2, survival processing was pitted against a gift desirability task and retrieval mode was varied. Survival processing yielded superior memory on a standard free recall test, but the survival processing advantage was eliminated when an unusual retrieval mode was encouraged. Results affirm the importance of context-dependent retrieval.

Realistic context doesn't amplify the survival processing effect: Lessons learned from Covid-19 scenarios.

Imagining being stranded in the grasslands of an unknown territory without basic survival materials and subsequently rating the relevance of words for this situation leads to exceptionally good memory for these words. This survival processing effect has received much attention, primarily because it has been argued to disclose the evolutionary foundations of human memory. So far, only fictitious scenarios were used to demonstrate this effect. To provide a fairer test of emotional response against richness-of-encoding explanations of the effect, we aimed at increasing everyday relevance and realism of the survival scenarios. For this purpose, we created two new Covid-19 scenarios, one focusing on emotional response (Covid-19-emotion) and the other on survival strategy (Covid-19-strategy). Both new scenarios were compared to the classical grassland and moving scenarios typically used to investigate the survival processing effect. In Experiment 1, we observed better memory for the grassland and Covid-19-strategy scenarios compared to the other two, but no significant difference between the former. A descriptively similar result pattern emerged in Experiment 2 for the number of ideas generated on how to use objects in the four scenarios. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Effects of survival processing on list method directed forgetting.

Two experiments examined the effects of directed (intentional) forgetting on information processed for its survival value. Experiment 1 used the list-method directed forgetting procedure in which items processed for their relevance to survival, moving house or pleasantness were followed by the cue to remember or forget. Following the encoding of a second list, free-recall of both lists showed that survival encoding brought about greater remembering (after the remember cue) and forgetting (after the forget cue). Experiment 2 also used the list-method and manipulated mental context reinstatement prior to recall. Although this manipulation was effective in enhancing memory, more directed forgetting was again shown in the survival condition. In both experiments the effects of survival processing were shown also in free-recall "remember" (vs. "know") responses, indicative of the retrieval of associative or contextual details. The mechanisms that might underpin these were evaluated and considered in relation to future work.

Divergent Thinking in Survival Processing: Did Our Ancestors Benefit From Creative Thinking?

The survival processing advantage is a robust mnemonic device in which information processed for its relevance to one's survival is subsequently better remembered. Research indicates that elaborative processing may be a key component underlying this memory effect, and that this mechanism resembles divergent thinking, whereby words with a greater number of creative uses in a given scenario are better remembered. If this particular function underpins adaptive memory, then individual differences in creativity may play a part in the degree to which people benefit from this advantage. We expected that highly creative individuals who engage more in divergent thinking would not necessarily benefit to a greater degree than less creative individuals, due to potential redundant processing. In this between-subjects experiment, participants rated words according to their relevance to the typical grasslands survival scenario or according to their pleasantness (a control common to the survival paradigm and known to enhance memory). While we did find a main effect of both condition (survival v. pleasantness) and creativity (high v. low), there was no interaction. This set of findings suggests that creative individuals may not benefit to a greater degree in survival processing, despite their ability to think divergently.

How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm.

After imagining being stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land without any basic survival material and rating objects with respect to their relevance in this situation, participants show superior memory performance for these objects compared to a control scenario. A possible mechanism responsible for this memory advantage is the richness and distinctiveness with which information is encoded in the survival-scenario condition. When confronted with the unusual task of thinking about how an object can be used in a life-threatening context, participants will most likely consider both common and uncommon (i.e., novel) functions of this object. These ideas about potential functions may later serve as powerful retrieval cues that boost memory performance. We argue that objects differ in their potential to be used as novel, creative survival tools. Some objects may be low in functional fixedness, meaning that it is possible to use them in many different ways. Other objects, in contrast, may be high in functional fixedness, meaning that the possibilities to use them in non-standard ways is limited. We tested experimentally whether functional fixedness of objects moderates the strength of the survival-processing advantage compared to a moving control scenario. As predicted, we observed an interaction of the functional fixedness level with scenario type: The survival-processing memory advantage was more pronounced for objects low in functional fixedness compared to those high in functional fixedness. These results are in line with the richness-of-encoding explanation of the survival-processing advantage.

Surviving in a second language: survival processing effect in memory of bilinguals.

Human memory likely evolved to serve adaptive functions, that is, to help maximise our chances of survival and reproduction. One demonstration of such adaptiveness is the increased retention of information processed in survival contexts, the so-called Survival Processing Effect (SPE). This study examined this effect in a native (L1) and in a second language (L2). This comparison is relevant to explore if emotionality is involved in the SPE, as emotional activation seems to be larger in L1 than in L2. Following the original survival processing procedure, participants rated the relevance of information to the survival and moving scenarios and performed a recognition (Experiment 1) or a free recall (Experiment 2) task in L1 or L2. In both experiments, the SPE was replicated in L1 but not in L2. The absence of the effect when emotional activation is less likely suggests that emotionality might play a role in the survival processing effect; nevertheless, additional studies are needed to further investigate this hypothesis.

Adaptive Memory: Independent Effects of Survival Processing and Reward Motivation on Memory.

Humans preferentially remember information processed for their survival relevance, a memorial benefit known as the survival processing effect. Memory is also biased towards information associated with the prospect of reward. Given the adaptiveness of these effects, they may depend on similar mechanisms. We tested whether motivation drives both effects, with reward incentives that are known to boost extrinsic motivation and survival processing perhaps stimulating intrinsic motivation. Accordingly, we manipulated survival processing and reward incentive independently during an incidental-encoding task in which participants chose between pairs of words concerning their relevance for a scenario, and examined the effects on encoding event-related potentials (ERP) activity and later performance on a surprise recall test. We hypothesized that if survival processing fosters intrinsic motivation, it should reduce the beneficial effects of extrinsic motivation (reward incentive). In contrast to this prediction, we found that reward incentive and survival processing independently improved memory and that the P300, a measure of lower-level cognitive resource allocation, was increased by reward incentive independent of survival processing. Further, survival processing and reward incentive independently increased the frontal slow wave (FSW), a measure of higher-level elaboration. These findings suggest that while survival processing and reward incentive may both increase encoding elaboration, the memory-enhancing effect of survival processing does not depend on increased intrinsic motivation. Additionally, we replicated a recent finding whereby the survival processing effect generalizes to a choice-based encoding task and further showed that the beneficial effect of choice on memory likely does not interact with either survival processing or reward.

Effects of Survival Processing on Item and Context Memory: Enhanced Memory for Survival-Relevant Details.

Due to the natural selection pressure, certain aspects of memory may have been selected to give humans a survival advantage. Research has demonstrated that processing information for survival relevance leads to better item memory (i.e., the content of information) compared to control conditions. The current study investigates the effects of survival processing on context memory (i.e., memory for peripheral episodic details) and item memory to better understand when the survival processing memory advantage emerges. In this study, participants studied pictures of objects in either a survival or moving (control) condition. Objects were presented in either a plausible color, for example, a red apple, or in an implausible color, such as a green pie. We chose this color plausibility manipulation because color is a detail that conveys information about the fitness (and other diagnostic information) about an item. After studying items, participants made item memory judgments (did you see this item before?) and two context memory judgments: color context (in which color did you see this item?) and source context (in which condition did you see this item?). Results indicated better item memory for materials processed in the survival relative to moving condition. Critically, for color context, there was a condition by plausibility interaction, where memory was best for plausibly colored items in the survival processing condition. There was no difference, however, in source context memory between the survival and moving conditions. These results suggest the survival processing memory advantage extends to contextual details that particularly reflect the survival utility of items such as color.

Survival processing modulates the neurocognitive mechanisms of episodic encoding.

Memories formed in the context of an imagined survival scenario are more easily remembered, but the mechanisms underlying this effect are still under debate. We investigated the neurocognitive processes underlying the survival processing effect by examining event-related potentials (ERPs) during memory encoding. Participants imagined being either stranded in a foreign land and needing to survive, or in an overseas moving (control) scenario, while incidentally encoding a list of words. Words encountered in the survival context were associated with improved recall and reduced false-memory intrusions during a later memory test. Survival processing was associated with an increased frontal slow wave, while there was no effect on the overall P300 amplitude, relative to the control scenario. Furthermore, a subsequent memory effect in the P300 time window was found only in the control scenario. These findings suggest that survival processing leads to a shift away from lower level encoding processes, which are sensitive to motivation and stimulus salience and which were evident in the control scenario, to more active and elaborative forms of encoding. The results are consistent with a richness of encoding account of the survival processing effect and offer novel insights into the encoding processes that lead to enhanced memory for fitness-relevant information.

The neurocognitive features in survival processing: An ERP study.

Recent behavioral studies used a survival processing task to investigate our memory systems from an evolutionary perspective. These results showed a memory advantage for the words rated for their relevance to a survival scenario compared with the words processed under numerous other tasks. However, the proximate explanations for the survival processing effect were mainly investigated through the subsequent retention data. By using event-related potentials, the present study was aimed to explore the neurocognitive features when we perform the survival-relevance-rating task. We used a pleasantness rating task and a moving processing task as control conditions in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Our results showed a larger parietal P600 for the words processed in the survival task compared with those processed in the pleasantness task and the moving task, indicating more elaborative encoding were obtained for the words processed in the survival task. Furthermore, an attenuated N400 was observed for the survival-relevant words in the survival task, indicating the survival scenario could facilitate the retrieval of these survival-relevant words. More importantly, a larger right frontal P600 was also observed for these survival-relevant words. This component might reflect the cognitive processes when we attempt to use the objects at hand to solve the fitness-relevant problems which we are facing. The present study supports the elaborative encoding hypothesis, and found the right frontal cortex plays an important role when we perform the survival task.

Adaptive Memory: Generality of the Parent Processing Effect and Effects of Biological Relatedness on Recall.

The adaptive memory framework posits that human memory is an evolved cognitive feature, in which stimuli relevant to fitness are better remembered than neutral stimuli. There is now substantial evidence that processing a neutral stimulus in terms of its relevancy to an imagined ancestral survival scenario enhances recall, although there is still disagreement concerning the proximate mechanisms responsible for this effect. Several other mnemonic biases have recently been discovered that similarly appear to reflect evolutionary pressures, including a bias to remember items relevant to an imagined parenting scenario. We tested the generality of this parent processing effect by varying the biological relatedness of the imagined child. We also varied the biological relatedness of a child during an imagined third-person survival processing scenario. Across four experiments, we found evidence that simply altering the described biological relatedness of a child in the parenting scenario and third-person survival processing scenario can affect recall, such that items are better remembered when made relevant to a biological child compared to an adopted child. How these findings inform the general adaptive memory framework is discussed.