Journal
PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 11, Issue 4, Pages 496-511Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/1745691616635613
Keywords
adaptive memory; survival processing; evolution; adaptations and exaptations; ultimate and proximate explanations
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [BCS-1532345]
- Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029610 - PTDC/MHC-PCN/5274/2012, IF/00058/2012]
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
- Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci [1532345] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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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.
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