Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Many everyday decisions are based not only on memories ofdirect experiences, but on memories that are integrated acrossmultiple distinct experiences. Sometimes memory integrationbetween existing memories and newly learnt informationoccurs rapidly, without requiring inference during thedecision. It is known that prior knowledge (i.e. schema)affects the initial acquisition, and consolidation, of memories.In this study, we explore the effect of schema on theintegration of acquired memories between paired associates(e.g. integrating A-B and B-C into A-B-C) that were schemaconsistent or inconsistent, as confirmed with a latent semanticanalysis of text corpora. We find that enabling fast learning,by using material that is consistent with a schema, allows forfast memory integration. These behavioral results areconsistent with predictions generated from neuroscientifichypotheses suggesting that an existing schema might enableneocortical learning that is distinct from a more explicithippocampus-mediated integration of new information.