Semantic relatedness retroactively boosts memory and promotes memory interdependence across episodes.

ABSTRACT: Two fundamental issues in memory research concern when later experiences strengthen or weaken initial memories and when the two memories become linked or remain independent. A promising candidate for explaining these issues is semantic relatedness. Here, across five paired-associate learning experiments (N=1000), we systematically varied the semantic relatedness between initial and later cues, initial and later targets, or both. We found that learning retroactively benefited long-term memory performance for semantically related words (vs. unshown control words), and these benefits increased as a function of relatedness. Critically, memory dependence between initial and later pairs also increased with relatedness, suggesting that pre-existing semantic relationships promote interdependence f

SUBMITTER: Antony JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9203053 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature