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Category: Project

Description: The aim of the project was to investigate the critical role of prior conceptual knowledge in driving knowledge generalization, and whether this comes at an expense of forming detailed memories. Over three experiments, healthy participants performed a modified version of the acquired equivalence test in which they learned overlapping object-scenes associations (A-X, B-X and A-Y) and then generalized the acquired knowledge to indirectly learned associations (B-Y) and novel objects (C-X and C-Y) that were from the same conceptual category (e.g. A - pencil; B - scissors) and different categories (e.g. A - watch; B - fork). In a subsequent recognition memory task, participants made old/new judgements to old (targets), similar (lures) and novel items. We found consistent evidence that forming associations of objects that had similar conceptual features led to higher rates of generalization but reduced detailed memory for the same objects, showcasing how memory processes can shift when learning.