Temporal contexts: Filling the gap between episodic memory and associative learning.

Abstract

People can create temporal contexts, or episodes, and stimuli that belong to the same context can later be used to retrieve the memory of other events that occurred at the same time. This can occur in the absence of direct contingency and contiguity between the events, which poses a challenge to associative theories of learning and memory. Because this is a learning and memory problem, we propose an integrated approach. Theories of temporal contexts developed in the memory tradition provide interesting predictions that we test using the methods of associative learning to assess their generality and applicability to different settings and dependent variables. In 4 experiments, the integration of these 2 areas allows us to show that (a) participants spontaneously create temporal contexts in the absence of explicit instructions; (b) cues can be used to retrieve an old temporal context and the information associated with other cues that were trained in that context; and (c) the memory of a retrieved temporal context can be updated with information from the current situation that does not fit well with the retrieved memory, thereby helping participants to best adapt their behavior to the future changes of the environment.

Changes in Cue Configuration Reduce the Impact of Interfering Information in a Predictive Learning Task

“…Setting aside the specific predictions of these models, this general idea provides an interesting framework to understand how changes in the experimental situation can modulate responding, regardless of whether they refer to changes in cues, contexts or other factors. Additional support for this latest proposal has been provided by Matute et al (2011) using an experimental paradigm similar to the one used herein.…”

“…Bouton's model can accommodate these findings by assuming that they do also involve a change in the (subjective) context. More recently, human contingency learning experiments have shown that procedural details like the instructions provided to participants, the frequency and type of responses requested, and the presence of filler trials can also modulate the retrieval of first- or second-learned information in interference paradigms (Matute et al, 2002, 2011; Vadillo et al, 2004; Rosas et al, 2006a). The results of our experiments and those conducted by Vervliet et al (2004, 2005) suggests that the configuration of the target cues might also have the functional properties of a context change (see also, Bouton and Swartzentruber, 1991; Rowe and Craske, 1998; Lovibond et al, 2000).…”

Evaluative Conditioning as Memory-Based Judgment

“…The contents of memory constantly inform cognition and behavior, but different affordances of dependent measures may affect how information is retrieved and integrated in a specific situation and for a specific purpose (e.g., Matute, Lipp, Vadillo, & Humphreys, 2011). This section addresses dissociations between dependent measures that may arise when comparing direct versus indirect measures (and model parameters, as in the processdissociation approach), or evaluative versus expectancy judgments.…”

“…On the other hand, US expectancy judgments are typically understood as momentary predictions of an imminent event (e.g., "given this CS, do you expect a US to be presented?") and should therefore more strongly rely on recent trends (Collins & Shanks, 2002;Matute et al, 2011). As a consequence of these defaults, a CS that has signaled negative events in the past is still evaluated negatively overall, even if recent encounters were neutral and negative events are no longer expected to occur in its presence (Lipp & Purkis, 2006).…”

Putting flexible animal prospection into context: escaping the theoretical box

“…However, one of the features of episodic retrieval is that a stimulus might evoke something that was merely present in the same temporal context, without actually being contiguous to or continuous with it. 59 An oft-cited example from the literature describes how munching on a lime-teawetted madeleine evokes Marcel Proust's childhood memories of his aunt. One suspects that Proust was not engaging in explicit learning while receiving this breakfast treat from his aunt.…”