Adaptive Memory : Remembering With a Stone-Age Brain  

Oleh:

Nairne, James S. ; Pandeirada, Josefa N.S.

Jenis: Article from Journal - e-Journal
Dalam koleksi: Current Directions in Psychological Science vol. 17 no. 04 (Aug. 2008), page 239-243.
Topik: Evolution; Memory; Survival; Fitness Relevance
Fulltext: 01. Adaptive Memory - Remembering With a Stone-Age Brain.pdf (105.86KB)

Isi artikel

If memory evolved, sculpted by the processes of natural selection, then its operating characteristics likely bear the ‘‘footprints’’ of ancestral selection pressures. Psychologists rarely consider this possibility and generally ignore functional questions in their attempt to understand how human memory works. We propose that memory evolved to enhance reproductive fitness and, accordingly, its systems are tuned to retain information that is fitness relevant. We present evidence consistent with this proposal, namely that processing information for its survival relevance leads to superior long-term retention—better, in fact, than most known memory-enhancement techniques. Even if one remains skeptical about evolutionary analyzes, adopting a functional perspective can lead to the generation of new research ideas.

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