{"pk":49277,"title":"Memory Overlap Enhances Shared Feature Recognition but Hinders Specific Memory in Adolescents and Adults","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Over time we accumulate memories for many related experiences. However, it remains poorly understood how this relatedness, or overlap, among learned information shapes how we remember shared and unique features. The current study investigated this question and further asked whether effects of overlap on memory differ in adolescence compared to adulthood, given evidence that memory specificity continues to be refined beyond childhood. We had adolescents (12-13 years old) and adults learn pairs of objects that overlapped with one another to different degrees and then tested their memory for both overlapping and pair-unique features. Across both age groups, we found that greater overlap boosted memory for the overlapping feature but also led to worse memory for unique features. Further, adolescents were more detrimentally affected by high overlap than adults when recalling specific pairs. Our results suggest there may be a trade-off between memory for shared and unique features of overlapping materials and that adolescents experience a greater cost to this trade-off. More generally, we find that the connections among learned information play an important role in how it is remembered.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Psychology; Cognitive development; Learning; Memory"}],"section":"Papers with Oral Presentation","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3vk0k06w","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Merron","middle_name":"","last_name":"Woodbury","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Toronto","department":""},{"first_name":"Sagana","middle_name":"","last_name":"Vijayarajah","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Toronto","department":""},{"first_name":"Margaret","middle_name":"L","last_name":"Schlichting","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Toronto","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2025-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/49277/galley/37238/download/"}]}