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Adaptive Memory

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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Synonyms

Fitness relevance; Mnemonic; Selection pressures; Survival processing

Definition

A memory advantage for information processed in a fitness-relevant domain (e.g., animacy, mortality salience, mate selection)

Introduction

The adaptive memory literature describes a memory benefit for information processed for its fitness value. Early iterations of this finding, first reported by Nairne, Thompson, and Pandeirada (2007), showed participants’ incidental recall was greatest after they had rated a set of words according to how well they would assist them “find[ing] steady supplies of food and water and protect[ing themselves] from predators” (p. 264). This “survival advantage” has been widely replicated across various laboratories, research designs, tasks, stimuli, languages, age groups, and other manipulations and factors (Kazanas and Altarriba 2015; Schwartz et al. 2014). Following these replications and extended research, Nairne and Pandeirada (2016) proposed a functionalist...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling and Psychology, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN, USA

    Stephanie A. Kazanas

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  1. Stephanie A. Kazanas
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Correspondence to Stephanie A. Kazanas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

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Kazanas, S.A. (2021). Adaptive Memory. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_2068-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_2068-1

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