Human memory retrieval as Levy foraging
Human memory retrieval as Levy foraging
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DOI：
10.1016/j.physa.2007.07.001
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发表时间：
2007-11-01
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Turvey, Michael T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Rhodes, Theo;Turvey, Michael T.
当人们试图从特定类别中回忆尽可能多的单词时（例如，动物名称），它们的检索在延长的时间段内零星地发生。随着回忆的进展，提取率下降，但即使在执行任务数十分钟后，也会出现短暂的提取爆发。迄今为止，从语义记忆的基本现象中深入了解提取本质的努力主要集中在累积回忆的指数增长率上。在这里，我们关注检索之间的时间间隔。我们预期并发现，对于我们实验中的每个参与者，这些间隔符合Levy分布，这表明表征觅食行为的Levy飞行动力学也可能表征语义记忆的检索。检索间隔的幂律分布指数越接近最佳觅食值2，检索效率越高。在一个抽象的动力学层面上，如果特定的食物和特定的单词随机地、稀疏地位于它们各自的空间中，而这些空间的位置是先验未知的，那么在一个人的小生境中搜寻特定的食物和在一个人的记忆中搜索特定的单词一定是类似的过程。我们讨论是否利维动力学意味着记忆过程，如觅食，在生态学的方式进行优化。(C)2007 Elsevier B.V.保留所有权利。
When people attempt to recall as many words as possible from a specific category (e.g., animal names) their retrievals occur sporadically over an extended temporal period. Retrievals decline as recall progresses, but short retrieval bursts can occur even after tens of minutes of performing the task. To date, efforts to gain insight into the nature of retrieval from this fundamental phenomenon of semantic memory have focused primarily upon the exponential growth rate of cumulative recall. Here we focus upon the time intervals between retrievals. We expected and found that, for each participant in our experiment, these intervals conformed to a Levy distribution suggesting that the Levy flight dynamics that characterize foraging behavior may also characterize retrieval from semantic memory. The closer the exponent on the inverse square power-law distribution of retrieval intervals approximated the optimal foraging value of 2, the more efficient was the retrieval. At an abstract dynamical level, foraging for particular foods in one's niche and searching for particular words in one's memory must be similar processes if particular foods and particular words are randomly and sparsely located in their respective spaces at sites that are not known a priori. We discuss whether Levy dynamics imply that memory processes, like foraging, are optimized in an ecological way. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.