Experimental Psychology Seminar - Maria Robinson
What conditions optimize memory and why? Reconciling the competing effects of similarity on recognition memory.
Experimental Psychology Seminar - Maria Robinson
11 Feb 2025, 13:00 – 14:00
Abstract: Memory research has revealed two conflicting phenomena. Computational and behavioral work on eyewitness memory suggests that correlations between memory signals enhance memory, whereas research on visual memory for simple features, such as color, indicates that similarity between memory signals hurts memory. In the current work, we propose a simple integrative framework that reconciles these conflicting effects of correlated noise and similarity. Using a simple signal detection model, we show formally that memory performance will always be optimized when similarity between memory signals is minimized, but only if specific ordinal constraints are met. We examine the generality of this framework across a range of memory tasks and stimuli. Together, we outline basic principles that can be used to predict when similar items being present at test may hurt or facilitate detection and discrimination performance in memory tasks. We also discuss how these principles can be used in the development of ecological models of memory that formally incorporate the latent similarity structure of stimuli spaces.
Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/91902782573?pwd=VQ7ZgGxcGCYvvaQUqsw4yYsre2Orta.1
Meeting ID: 919 0278 2573
Passcode: 991936
Maria Robinson
University of Warwick
Maria Robinson (PhD) is an assistant professor in the Behavioral Science group in the Psychology Department at the University of Warwick. She received her PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2019 and was an NRSA postdoc in Timothy Brady’s lab at the University of California, San Diego. Her primary research interest is in combining computational modeling and formal analysis with empirical work to study a range of cognitive processes, like attention memory and decision-making. She's also interested in topics on best practices in measurement and theory assessment in psychology.