生命何以特殊?生命性对记忆的影响及认知机制

Why Is Life Special? The Animacy Effect on Memory and Its Underlying Mechanisms

生命性效应是人类的一种记忆现象,指生命实体比无生命实体更容易被识记。该效应是人类记忆系统在进化过程中被赋予功能性的体现,主要由记忆材料自身的生命属性所引发,并且在不同的实验范式、刺激材料和记忆范畴中均稳定存在。生命性对记忆的影响可以从注意捕获、唤起与激活、加工深度等不同的认知加工过程进行解释。未来研究应在进一步界定生命性概念的基础上,关注不同认知机制间的传递关系,采用更严谨、多样化的任务范式,探究生命性效应的长时可持续性,考察生命性效应的神经机制及其在外语学习中的应用价值。

In recent years, an emerging body of evidence has established that animacy facilitates memory formation and retention, a phenomenon termed the animacy effect (that is, animate entities are remembered better than inanimate ones). From an adaptive perspective, it is important for our memory system to be sensitive to animate information. Thus, the animacy effect manifests the adaptability that human memory system has been endowed in evolution. Based on the connotation of the animacy effect, the current review: 1) summarizes empirical findings from previous research, 2) introduces the cognitive mechanisms underlying the effect (including the attention capture, arousal and activation, and depth of processing mechanisms), and 3) enlightens some directions for future research. The long-term persistency of the effect remains unclear, and the transitive relations among those different mechanisms, the neural underpinnings of the animacy effect and its practical significance in foreign language learning are promising directions for future research.