Work

Decision uncertainty during hypothesis testing enhances memory accuracy for incidental information

Year: 2022

Type: preprint

Abstract: Humans actively seek information to reduce uncertainty, providing insight on how our decisions causally affect the world. While we know that episodic memories can help support future goal-oriented behaviors, little is known about how hypothesis testing during exploration influences episodic memory. To investigate this question, we designed a hypothesis testing paradigm, in which participants figured out rules to unlock treasure chests. Using this paradigm, we characterized how hypothesis testing during exploration influenced memory for the contents of the treasure chests. We found that there was an inverted U-shaped relationship between decision uncertainty and memory, such that memory was best when decision uncertainty was moderate. An exploratory analysis also showed that surprising outcomes lead to lower memory confidence independent of accuracy. These findings support a model in which moderate decision uncertainty during hypothesis testing enhances incidental information encoding.

Source: Learning & Memory

DOI: 10.1101/lm.053458.121

Authors: Xinxu Shen, Ian C. Ballard, David V. Smith, Vishnu P. Murty

Institutions: Temple University, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Memory Processes and Influences

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse

Awards: Aberrant Reward Sensitivity: Mechanisms Underlying Substance Use, Influence of reward on memory consolidation in adults and adolescence, Neurodevelopment of Mesolimbic Afferents in Healthy Adolescents and First-Episode Psychosis, The influence of mesolimbic-hippocampal interactions on episodic memory during active information seeking