Mind wandering at encoding, but not at retrieval, disrupts one-shot stimulus-control learning

The one-shot pairing of a stimulus with a specific cognitive control process, such as task switching, can bind the two together in memory. The episodic control-binding hypothesis posits that the formation of temporary stimulus-control bindings, which are held in event-files supported by episodic memory, can guide the contextually appropriate application of cognitive control. Across two experiments, we sought to examine the role of task-focused attention in the encoding and implementation of stimulus-control bindings in episodic event-files. In Experiment 1, we obtained self-reports of mind wandering during encoding and implementation of stimulus-control bindings. Results indicated that, whereas mind wandering during the implementation of stimulus-control bindings does not decrease their efficacy, mind wandering during the encoding of these control-state associations interferes with their successful deployment at a later point. In Experiment 2, we complemented these results by using trial-by-trial pupillometry to measure attention, again demonstrating that attention levels at encoding predict the subsequent implementation of stimulus-control bindings better than attention levels at implementation. These results suggest that, although encoding stimulus-control bindings in episodic memory requires active attention and engagement, once encoded, these bindings are automatically deployed to guide behavior when the stimulus recurs. These findings expand our understanding of how cognitive control processes are integrated into episodic event files.

From Tenochtitlán to Punt: When People Encounter the Distant and Unknown, a Cognitive Approach

This article aims to analyse the behavioural response generated by people who came into contact with civilisations and places whose existence was previously unknown or only remotely registered in their collective knowledge. Three major cases have been taken into consideration: a.) the “discovery” of America during the sixteenth century CE when Europeans entered in contact with Aztecs, Cakchiquels, and Andeans; b.) the encounters with the civilisations in Tahiti and Hawaii during the eighteenth century CE, and c.) the ancient Egyptian arrival at Punt during the fifteenth century BCE under the reign of queen Hatshepsut. Although spatially and chronologically separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years, in all of these cases the “encounterers” (i.e., the ones who were moving towards the unknown or distant and contemporaries who were writing their own history) tended to project a self-perceived supremacy over the encountered people, configured as a spontaneous feeling of their supremacy over the local population (hence a “counterfeit” emic notion). In all the above cases, the “encountering” event gave rise to the creation of an “apotheosis” myth, in which the encounterers were supposed to be seen, and believed in, as “gods coming from the sky.” Applying concepts from the cognitive science to these historical events, the article aims to scrutinize the mental categories that tended to generate such a belief of divine superiority projected in the vision of the Other. Rather than being marginalized as an episodic event, the formation of an apotheosis myth can be interpreted as part of a global process, which emerges in the human mind-frame, solicited by mental processes and in contact with a number of similar external outputs.

EPISODIC EVENTS ON RADAR AND MULTISPECTRAL REMOTE SENSORS FROM SALAR DE AGUAS CALIENTES, CHILE

Restricted episodic changes occurred in a short time period and over large spatial extents. Extreme weather conditions usually give rise to restricted episodic changes. Sentinel-1 radar images of the Salar de Aguas Calientes in Chile acquired in the Altiplanic winter (March 2015 and June 2017), 2018 austral winter and 2017–2018 springtime, demonstrates the ability to monitor episodic events remotely. The results of the backscattered power are encouraging and show episodic variations in VV polarization at C-band. The surface features in Salar de Aguas Calientes Sur change in response to snowfalls during either the Altiplanic or austral winter with an increase of the backscattering in presence of dry snow over the salt pan crust. Flooding events related to snow-melting during spring 2017–2018 showed a decrease in the backscattering signal over ponded water and an increase when wind blows over the water. Remote-sensing observations of the salar can provide a means for monitoring changes in the surface of the salar and a better understanding of the associated climatic episodic event processes. Furthermore, it can help to have a better understanding of environmental changes in arid regions and the understanding of global climate change.

United we fall: All-or-none forgetting of complex episodic events

Do complex event representations fragment over time or are they, instead, forgotten in an all-or-none manner? For example, if we met a friend in a café and they gave us a present, do we forget the constituent elements of this event (location, person and object) independently, or would the whole event be forgotten as one? Research suggests that item-based memories are forgotten in a fragmented manner. However, we do not know how more complex episodic, ‘event-based’ memories are forgotten. We assessed both retrieval accuracy and dependency – the statistical association between the retrieval successes of different elements from the same event – for complex events. Across 4 experiments, we show that retrieval dependency is found both immediately after learning and following a 12-hour and 1-week delay. Further, the amount of retrieval dependency after a delay is greater than that predicted by a model of independent forgetting. This dependency was only seen for coherent ‘closed-loops’, where all pairwise associations between locations, people and objects were encoded. When ‘open-loops’ were learnt, where only two out of the three possible associations were encoded, no dependency was seen immediately after learning nor after a delay. Finally, we also provide evidence for higher retention rates for closed-loops than open-loops. Therefore, closed-loops do not fragment as a function of forgetting, and are retained for longer than open-loops. Our findings suggest that coherent episodic events are not only retrieved, but also forgotten, in an all-or-none manner.

Locally distributed abstraction of temporal distance in human parietal cortex

An enduring puzzle in the neuroscience of memory is how the brain parsimoniously situates past events by their order in relation to time. By combining functional MRI, and representational similarity analysis, we reveal a multivoxel representation of time intervals separating pairs of episodic event-moments in the posterior medial memory system, especially when the events were experienced within a similar temporal context. We further show such multivoxel representations to be vulnerable to disruption through targeted repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and that perturbation to the mnemonic abstraction alters the neural—behavior relationship across the wider parietal memory network. Our findings establish a mnemonic “pattern-based” code of temporal distances in the human brain, a fundamental neural mechanism for supporting the temporal structure of past events, assigning the precuneus as a locus of flexibly effecting the manipulation of physical time during episodic memory retrieval.

Episodic memory isn't essentially autonoetic

I argue that the function attributed to episodic memory by Mahr & Csibra (M&C) – that is, grounding one's claims to epistemic authority over past events – fails to support the essentially autonoetic character of such memories. I suggest, in contrast, that episodic event memories are sometimes purely first order, sometimes autonoetic, depending on relevance in the context.