Prediction Error and Memory Reactivation: How Incomplete Reminders Drive Reconsolidation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• Memories are not static and can be altered or distorted.
• Prediction error, defined as surprise, is increasingly implicated in memory malleability.
• Reconsolidation research offers insights into how memories are updated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review evidence demonstrating that incomplete reminders drive human memory updating.
• To explore the role of prediction error in memory malleability across diverse contexts.
• To integrate findings from reconsolidation theory and nonmonotonic plasticity under the framework of predictive coding.

Main Methods:

• Review of diverse evidence from classical conditioning to naturalistic episodes.
• Analysis of reconsolidation studies utilizing incomplete retrieval cues.
• Examination of predictive coding principles in memory research.

Main Results:

• Incomplete reminders effectively elicit prediction error, leading to memory distortion, updating, and strengthening.
• This mechanism operates across a wide range of memory types, from simple conditioning to complex episodes.
• Predictive coding provides a unifying framework for understanding these memory updating processes.

Conclusions:

• Incomplete reminders are a critical factor in human memory updating.
• Understanding prediction error in memory reconsolidation has implications for pathological fear, false memories, and misinformation.
• Both animal and human reconsolidation research can advance by focusing on prediction error and incomplete reminders.