How memory affects learning and decision-making

Washington, July 15 (ANI): When humans learn, their brains relate new information with past experiences to derive new knowledge, a new study has suggested.

The study, led by Alison Preston from The University of Texas at Austin, shows that this memory-binding process allows people to better understand new concepts and make future decisions.

According to Preston, the findings of the study could lead to better teaching methods, as well as treatment of degenerative neurological disorders, such as dementia.

"Memories are not just for reflecting on the past; they help us make the best decisions for the future," Preston said.

"Here, we provide a direct link between these derived memories and the ability to make novel inferences," she said.

In the study, 34 subjects were shown a series of paired images composed of different elements like an object and an outdoor scene.

Each of the paired images would then reappear in more presentations. A backpack, paired with a horse in the first presentation, would appear alongside a field in a later presentation.

The overlap between the backpack and outdoor scenery (horse and field) would cause the viewer to associate the backpack with the horse and field.

The researchers used this strategy to see how respondents would delve back to a recent memory while processing new information.

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) equipment, the researchers were able to look at the subjects' brain activity as they looked at image presentations.

Using this technique, Preston and her team were able to see how the respondents thought about past images while looking at overlapping images.

For example, they studied how the respondents thought about a past image (a horse) when looking at the backpack and the field.

They found the subjects who reactivated related memories while looking at overlapping image pairs were able to make associations between individual items (i.e. the horse and the field) despite the fact that they had never studied those images together.

To illustrate the ways in which this cognitive process works, Preston described an everyday scenario.

Imagine you see a new neighbor walking a Great Dane down the street. At a different time and place, you may see a woman walking the same dog in the park.

When experiencing the woman walking her dog, the brain conjures images of the recent memory of the neighbour and his Great Dane, causing an association between the dog walkers to be formed in memory.

The derived relationship between the dog walkers would then allow you to infer the woman is also a new neighbour even though you have never seen her in your neighbourhood.

"This is just a simple example of how our brains store information that goes beyond the exact events we experience," Preston said.

"By combining past events with new information, we're able to derive new knowledge and better anticipate what to expect in the future," she added.

The study has been published online in the journal Neuron. (ANI)