Modification of episodic memories due to integration with a self-model

P8项目旨在研究情景的形成是如何从记忆和自我模型的整合中产生的。我们建立并实施了新的实验范式来阐明自我模式对情景记忆的影响。最后，我们的目标是在这个主题上建立一个新的概念和经验框架。我们假设情景记忆与自我模型的整合在这一过程不能无缝和自动地发挥作用的情况下可以得到最好的研究。这是在自我模式不一致的情节中引起羞耻或内疚感的情况。我们测试了这些情节的记忆是否与引起负面情绪的情节（除了羞耻和内疚）和中性情节的记忆不同，以及如何不同。在第一项研究中，我们在几个月内收集了3000多篇自传体故事的报告，并用人工智能方法对它们进行了分析。我们的研究结果表明，引起羞耻的记忆与引起内疚的记忆在内容上没有区别。然而，它们在现象学特征上不同于其他事件的记忆，这表明它们特别受到自我模式的影响。在与P4密切合作进行的第二项研究中，我们通过实验诱导了羞耻感。然后，我们测试了这些情节的记忆是否以及如何通过随后的操作来修改，这些操作要么影响了这些记忆的内容，要么影响了它们与自我模型的相关性。最后，在与其他项目，特别是P7的密切合作下，我们开发了一个关于自我记忆整合和自我不一致情绪影响的综合理论框架。在第二个资助期，我们将进行一系列的fMRI研究，从神经层面探讨自我模型对情景构建的影响。基于P4在第一个资助期开发的实验范式，我们将首先测试羞耻相关事件的记忆的神经特征与不引起羞耻的控制事件的记忆有何不同。我们还将测试这些神经特征与这些情节的叙事特征和现象学特征之间的关系。然后，我们将研究这些影响是否以及如何通过对这些记忆的后续修改而改变。进一步的研究将探讨羞耻感对情景形成（即记忆检索）的影响与编码过程中的神经活动模式之间的关系，以及羞耻感对情景记忆痕迹和语义知识的相对影响。这些研究的结果将使我们能够测试（并可能修改或更新）我们在第一个资助期开发的自我记忆整合概念框架。P8的成功主要依赖于与其他子项目的实证研究和概念分析的密切合作，并反过来为哲学和计算模型提供信息。

Project P8 aims to investigate how scenario formation results from an integration between memory and the self-model. We establish and conduct novel experimental paradigms that elucidate the impact of the self-model on episodic memories. Eventually, we aim to develop a novel conceptual and empirical framework on this topic. We hypothesize that the integration of episodic memories with the self-model can be studied best in situations when this process cannot be exerted seamlessly and automatically. This is the case during self-model–incongruent episodes that elicit feelings of shame or guilt. We test whether and how memory of these episodes differs from memory of episodes that elicit negative emotions other than shame and guilt and of neutral episodes. In a first study, we collected reports of more than 3,000 autobiographical episodes across several months and analyzed them with artificial intelligence methods. Our results indicate that memories of shame-inducing episodes do not differ in their content from episodes that elicit guilt. However, they differ from memories of other episodes in their phenomenological characteristics, suggesting that they are specifically affected by the self-model. In a second study that was conducted in close collaboration with P4, we experimentally induced feelings of shame. We then tested whether and how memory of these episodes could be modified by subsequent manipulations that either affected the content of these memories or their relevance for the self-model. Finally, in close collaboration with other projects, in particular P7, we developed a comprehensive theoretical framework of self-memory integration and of the impact of self-incongruent emotions. In the second funding period, we will conduct a series of fMRI studies to investigate the impact of the self-model on scenario construction at the neural level. Building on experimental paradigms developed in the first funding period with P4, we will first test how the neural signature of memories for shame-related episodes differs from the memories of control episodes that do not induce shame. We will also test how these neural signatures relate to narrative features and phenomenological characteristics of these episodes. We will then study whether and how these effects can be altered by subsequent modifications of these memories. Additional studies will address the relationship between shame effects on scenario formation (i.e., memory retrieval) with neural activity patterns during encoding, and the relative impact of shame on episodic memory traces vs. semantic knowledge. The results from these studies will allow us to test (and possibly revise or update) our conceptual framework on self-memory integration that we developed in the first funding period. The success of P8 critically relies on close collaborations with both empirical research and conceptual analysis in other subprojects and will, in turn, inform philosophical and computational models.