The Relation between Gist and Item Memory Over a Month
Abstract
Memory requires both individuation of specific episodes aswell as extraction of gist across related experiences. Thisstudy developed a spatial memory paradigm to track changesin item memory (memory for specific locations) and gistmemory (estimate of the center of the locations) across aperiod of a month, and to measure the relation between thesetwo forms of memory. We found that item memories decayedcompared to gist memory after a month, yet there was apositive relationship between the two forms of memory thatpersisted. Moreover, item memories were biased towards gistmemory only after a month. These findings together indicatethat gist memory, initially extracted from item memories,gradually develops into a stable representation that can guideitem memory retrieval over longer durations.