Individual differences in memory generalization - Project summary
Memory allows us to remember specific details of past events. Memory also allows us to build complex
knowledge and generalize to new situation, by integrating information acquired across several experiences.
While hippocampus has been long known to support memory specificity, more recent interests have focused
on the hippocampal role in memory integration and generalization. To what degree memory generalization
relies on unique mechanisms, distinct from the ability to remember specific details, is a matter of much debate.
Furthermore, specificity-generalization dissociations may exist along the long axis of the hippocampus, across
the hippocampal subfields, or through hippocampal interactions with distinct cortical regions. A key challenge
in resolving among current theories and designing new ways to test them is that generalization has been
measured using a range of tasks, but whether they capture the same underlying mechanism has not been
evaluated. Establishing a common denominator (or a distinction) across generalization studies is a critical step
towards reconciling results from isolated lines of research and informing future research of hippocampal-based
generalization. Individual differences provide a unique means to uncover the degree to which different tasks
rely on shared or distinct underlying cognitive processes. In the proposed R03 Small Project Grant, participants
(N=200) will complete a range of memory tasks, including several putative memory generalization and putative
memory specificity measures typically used in different labs. The primary proposed analyses will reveal the
degree to which distinct generalization tasks measure the same memory generalization capability and the
degree to which memory generalization ability is dissociable from the ability to remember specific details. The
work will yield a rich dataset that will be freely shared on Open Science Framework (or equivalent) platform
and that can be queried for many questions. Easy-to-use and documented code for collecting each memory
measure will be shared with the data for any lab to adopt. By establishing equivalency or distinctions among
different memory measures, the results will support informed synthesis of existing work and facilitate
crosspollination of ideas across labs. Dissociating specificity and generalization processes within each task
and establishing validated generalization measures will pave way for future neuroimaging research testing
current generalization theories. More broadly, the results will inform current theories of memory function and
may help shed light on mixed patterns of memory specificity and generalization impairments in neurological
diseases, anxiety, depression, autism, or following a stroke.
