Adaptive Memory: Fitness Relevance and the Hunter-Gatherer Mind
Adaptive Memory: Fitness Relevance and the Hunter-Gatherer Mind
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02356.x
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发表时间：
2009-06-01
影响因子：
8.2
通讯作者：
Van Arsdall, Joshua E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Nairne, James S.;Pandeirada, Josefa N. S.;Van Arsdall, Joshua E.
最近的研究表明，人类的记忆系统被“调整”，以记忆根据其适应值进行处理的信息。当人们被要求对单词与生存情景的相关性进行评分时，在随后的突击记忆测试中的表现超过了大多数其他已知编码技术之后的表现。目前的实验使用旨在模拟早期狩猎-采集社会特征的劳动分工思想的生存场景来探索这种影响。有人提出，由于男性和女性在人类进化过程中通常执行的独特生存任务(分别是狩猎和采集)，他们具有不同的认知专门化；目前的实验测试了这种专门化是否在记忆中对被评为与这些活动相关的单词明显。男性和女性被要求对随机单词与典型的狩猎和采集情景或匹配的、与健康无关的控制情景(在清道夫狩猎或狩猎比赛中收集食物)的相关性进行评分。惊喜保持测试显示，当单词被评为与狩猎和采集场景相关时，与被评为与对照场景相关时相比，它们的记忆力更好，但在记忆表现上没有发现性别差异。
Recent studies suggest that human memory systems are "tuned" to remember information that is processed in terms of its fitness value. When people are asked to rate the relevance of words to a survival scenario, performance on subsequent surprise memory tests exceeds that obtained after most other known encoding techniques. The present experiments explored this effect using survival scenarios designed to mimic the division of labor thought to characterize early hunter-gatherer societies. It has been suggested that males and females have different cognitive specializations due to the unique survival tasks (hunting and gathering, respectively) they typically performed during periods of human evolution; the present experiments tested whether such specializations might be apparent in memory for words rated for relevance to these activities. Males and females were asked to rate the relevance of random words to prototypical hunting and gathering scenarios or to matched, non-fitness-relevant control scenarios (gathering food on a scavenger hunt or in a hunting contest). Surprise retention tests revealed superior memory for the words when they were rated for relevance to hunting and gathering scenarios, compared with when they were rated for relevance to the control scenarios, but no sex differences were found in memory performance.