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Updated: May 28, 2026

A Behavioral Assay for Investigating the Role of Spatial Memory During Instinctive Defense in Mice
Published on: July 21, 2018
Adaptive memory: enhanced location memory after survival processing
James S Nairne1, Joshua E Vanarsdall, Josefa N S Pandeirada
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, 703 Third Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2081, USA. nairne@psych.purdue.edu
Abstract:
Two experiments investigated whether survival processing enhances memory for location. From an adaptive perspective, remembering that food has been located in a particular area, or that potential predators are likely to be found in a given territory, should increase the chances of subsequent survival. Participants were shown pictures of food or animals located at various positions on a computer screen. The task was to rate the ease of collecting the food or capturing the animals relative to a central fixation point. Surprise retention tests revealed that people remembered the locations of the items better when the collection or capturing task was described as relevant to survival. These data extend the generality of survival processing advantages to a new domain (location memory) by means of a task that does not involve rating the relevance of words to a scenario.
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