Divergent thinking modulates interactions between episodic memory and schema knowledge: Controlled and spontaneous episodic retrieval processes

Mem Cognit. 2024 Jan 16. doi: 10.3758/s13421-023-01493-5. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe ability to generate novel ideas, known as divergent thinking, depends on both semantic knowledge and episodic memory. Semantic knowledge and episodic memory are known to interact to support memory decisions, but how they may interact to support divergent thinking is unknown. Moreover, it is debated whether divergent thinking relies on spontaneous or controlled retrieval processes. We addressed these questions by examining whether divergent thinking ability relates to interactions between semantic knowledge and different episodic memory processes. Participants completed the alternate uses task of divergent thinking, and completed a memory task in which they searched for target objects in schema-congruent or schema-incongruent locations within scenes. In a subsequent test, participants indicated where in each scene the target object had been located previously (i.e., spatial accuracy test), and provided confidence-based recognition memory judgments that indexed distinct episodic memory processes (i.e., recollection, familiarity, and unconscious memory) for the scenes. We found that higher divergent thinking ability-specifically in terms of the number of ideas generated-was related to (1) more of a benefit from recollection (a controlled process) and unconscious memory (a spontaneous process) on spatial accuracy and (2) beneficial differences in how semantic knowledge was combined with re...

Source: Memory and Cognition - January 16, 2024 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Michelle M Ramey Darya L Zabelina Source Type: research