Open AccessWhat I like is what I remember: Memory modulation and preferential choice.
Author(s) -
Ada Aka,
Sudeep Bhatia
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of experimental psychology. general
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.521
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1939-2222
pISSN - 0096-3445
DOI - 10.1037/xge0001034
Subject(s) - recall , cognitive psychology , psycinfo , psychology , semantic memory , reconstructive memory , computer science , cognition , explicit memory , neuroscience , medline , political science , law
Memory is a crucial component of everyday decision making, yet little is known about how memory and choice processes interact and whether or not established memory regularities persist during memory-based decision making. In this paper, we introduce a novel experimental paradigm to study the differences between memory processes at play in standard list recall versus in preferential choice. Using computational memory models, fit to data from 2 preregistered experiments, we find that some established memory regularities (primacy, recency, semantic clustering) emerge in preferential choice, whereas others (temporal clustering) are significantly weakened relative to standard list recall. Notably, decision-relevant features, such as item desirability, play a stronger role in guiding retrieval in choice. Our results suggest memory processes differ across preferential choice and standard memory tasks, and that choice modulates memory by differentially activating decision-relevant features such as what we like. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).