Exploring the Effects of Contextual Elements on Memory Specificity

Authors

Cassie Widdison, Brigham Young University
Brock Kirwan, Brigham Young University

Keywords

contextual elements, memory specificity, computational process

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Regions of the brain, such as the medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus and the adjacent MTL cortex, facilitate recognition memory performance (Squire, Stark, & Clark, 2004). The hippocampus is known for its ability to encode and retrieve memories through two processes called pattern separation and pattern completion (Mcclelland, Mcnaughton, & Oreilly, 1995). Pattern separation is a computational process in which the memory representations of similar stimuli are made as dissimilar as possible. This allows one to recall differences between old stimuli and similar, but novel stimuli. Pattern completion is a computational process where a memory representation is retrieved by a degraded or partial cue. This process may result in an old stimulus being recalled but the differences between the old and similar not being registered.

Recommended Citation

Widdison, Cassie and Kirwan, Brock (2016) "Exploring the Effects of Contextual Elements on Memory Specificity," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2016: Iss. 1, Article 88.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2016/iss1/88