UPDATING THE MEANING OF A WORD: MEMORY REACTIVATION BOOSTS INTEGRATION INTO AN EXISTING MEMORY TRACE

JULIETA LAURINO; CECILIA FORCATO; M.E. PEDREIRA; LAURA KACZER

Villa Carlos Paz

Congreso; XXXIVCongreso SAN; 2019

SAN

Words are extremely malleable memories, subject to updating and modification. However, the mechanisms that allow this plasticity remain unclear. In two different studies we analyzed the contribution of memory reactivation to the enhancement (Study 1) and updating (Study 2) of a word?s meaning. Native speakers of Spanish (19-35 years) learned low-frequency words within their language (e.g. 'Ergotina') and their corresponding definitions ('Remedy for haemorrhages'). The following day, Reactivation groups were exposed to a reminder, consisting of the list of words they learnt the previous day, but without their definitions (thus generating a prediction error). No Reactivation groups, on the other hand, did not receive a reminder. In Study 1 (N=34), memory retention was evaluated 7 days after training using a semantic judgment task. In Study 2 (N=73), participants learned a new information for each of the words' definitions (e.g. 'ergotina is extracted from a rye fungus'). Retention for the updated word's memory was evaluated 48 h after training using a cued-recall test. Results of Study 1 show a significant enhancement of semantic recognition speed in the Reactivation group. Regarding memory updating, Study 2 reveals a significant enhancement of the new info memory that increases according to the reactivation strength of each word. Taking into account both results, memory reactivation might be one of the mechanisms that allow the rebuilding of the mental lexicon.