Dynamic Binding in Memory: Top-down and Bottom-up Modulation of Memory Access

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hubert Zimmer
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2008 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 72271137

The ability to remember pictures is provided by reactivation of a distributed neural network which comprises the perirhinal cortex (part of the medio-temporal system) and the representing occipital-temporal structures. These neural structures associated with visual item memory also contribute to perception. Nevertheless, different effects are observed if a memory trace is used in an explicit (episodic) or implicit memory task – recognizing a repeated picture as old vs. repeated processing of the item. These differences are only partly understood. With the present project we want to enhance our knowledge of the structural organization of and the access to visual memory in order to achieve a better understanding of the mechanisms and dynamics of episodic recognition and of repetition advantages in identification. We suggest that dynamic binding of features into memory entries and biased competition guided by retrieval mode are key factors in this context. In the time course of perception, memory entries are dynamically accessed on a feature by feature basis and this process modulates memory access bottom-up. Retrieval mode denotes the mind state of a perceiver being in an episodic memory task. This tonic state favors reinstatement of episodic memory traces and by this it influences memory access top-down. We want to provide evidence for the impact of these two mechanisms on memory by showing that the observed behavioral, electrophysiological, and hemodynamic memory effects are modulated by retrieval mode and the visual processing characteristics of features.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants