Evaluating recall error in preschoolers: Category expectations influence episodic memory for color.

Despite limited memory capacity, children are exceptional learners. How might children engage in meaningful learning despite limited memory systems? Past research suggests that adults integrate category knowledge and noisy episodic traces to aid recall when episodic memory is noisy or incomplete (e.g. Hemmer & Steyvers, 2009a,b). We suspect children utilize a similar process but integrate category and episodic traces in recall to a different degree. Here we conduct two experiments to empirically assess children's color category knowledge (Study 1) and recall of target hue values (Study 2). In Study 1, although children's generated hue values appear to be noisier than adults, we found no significant difference between children and adult's generated color category means (prototypes), suggesting that preschool-aged children's color categories are well established. In Study 2, we found that children's (like adult's) free recall of target hue values regressed towards color category means. We implemented three probabilistic memory models: one that combines category knowledge and specific target information (Integrative), a category only (Noisy Prototype) model, and a target only (Noisy Target) model to computationally evaluate recall performance. Consistent with previous studies with older children (Duffy, Huttenlocher, & Crawford, 2006), quantitative fits of the models to aggregate group-level data provided strong support for the Integrative process. However, at the individual subject level, a greater proportion of preschoolers' recall was better fit by a Prototype only model. Our results provide evidence that the integration of category knowledge in episodic memory comes online early and strongly. Implications for how the greater reliance on category knowledge by preschoolers relative to adults might track with developmental shifts in relational episodic memory are discussed.

Opportunities and challenges integrating resource-rational analysis with developmental perspectives.

Lieder and Griffiths present the computational framework "resource-rational analysis" to address the reverse-engineering problem in cognition. Here we discuss how developmental psychology affords a unique and critical opportunity to employ this framework, but which is overlooked in this piece. We describe how developmental change provides an avenue for ongoing work as well as inspiration for expansion of the resource-rational approach.

The dynamics of fidelity over the time course of long-term memory.

Bayesian models of cognition assume that prior knowledge about the world influences judgments. Recent approaches have suggested that the loss of fidelity from working to long-term (LT) memory is simply due to an increased rate of guessing (e.g. Brady, Konkle, Gill, Oliva, & Alvarez, 2013). That is, recall is the result of either remembering (with some noise) or guessing. This stands in contrast to Bayesian models of cognition while assume that prior knowledge about the world influences judgments, and that recall is a combination of expectations learned from the environment and noisy memory representations. Here, we evaluate the time course of fidelity in LT episodic memory, and the relative contribution of prior category knowledge and guessing, using a continuous recall paradigm. At an aggregate level, performance reflects a high rate of guessing. However, when aggregate data is partitioned by lag (i.e., the number of presentations from study to test), or is un-aggregated, performance appears to be more complex than just remembering with some noise and guessing. We implemented three models: the standard remember-guess model, a three-component remember-guess model, and a Bayesian mixture model and evaluated these models against the data. The results emphasize the importance of taking into account the influence of prior category knowledge on memory.

From silos to synergy: Integrating approaches to investigate the role of prior knowledge and expectations on episodic memory.

Significant progress in the investigation of how prior knowledge influences episodic memory has been made using three sometimes isolated (but not mutually exclusive) approaches: strictly adult behavioral investigations, computational models, and investigations into the development of the system. Here we point out that these approaches are complementary, each approach informs and is informed by the other. Thus, a natural next step for research is to combine all three approaches to further our understanding of the role of prior knowledge in episodic memory. Here we use studies of memory for expectation-congruent and incongruent information from each of these often disparate approaches to illustrate how combining approaches can be used to test and revise theories from the other. This domain is particularly advantageous because it highlights important features of more general memory processes, further differentiates models of memory, and can shed light on developmental change in the memory system. We then present a case study to illustrate the progress that can be made from integrating all three approaches and highlight the need for more endeavors in this vein. As a first step, we also propose a new computational model of memory that takes into account behavioral and developmental factors that can influence prior knowledge and episodic memory interactions. This integrated approach has great potential for offering novel insights into the relationship between prior knowledge and episodic memory, and cognition more broadly.

Seeing Colors: Cultural and Environmental Influences on Episodic Memory.

Expectations learned from our perceptual experiences, culture, and language can shape how we perceive, interact with, and remember features of the past. Here, we questioned whether environment also plays a role. We tested recognition memory for color in Bolivia's indigenous Tsimanè people, who experience a different color environment than standard U.S. POPULATIONS: We found that memory regressed differently between the groups, lending credence to the idea that environmental variations engender differences in expectations, and in turn perceptual memory for color.

Interaction between categorical knowledge and episodic memory across domains.

Categorical knowledge and episodic memory have traditionally been viewed as separate lines of inquiry. Here, we present a perspective on the interrelatedness of categorical knowledge and reconstruction from memory. We address three underlying questions: what knowledge do people bring to the task of remembering? How do people integrate that knowledge with episodic memory? Is this the optimal way for the memory system to work? In the review of five studies spanning four category domains (discrete, continuous, temporal, and linguistic), we evaluate the relative contribution and the structure of influence of categorical knowledge on long-term episodic memory. These studies suggest a robustness of peoples' knowledge of the statistical regularities of the environment, and provide converging evidence of the quality and influence of category knowledge on reconstructive memory. Lastly, we argue that combining categorical knowledge and episodic memory is an efficient strategy of the memory system.