ArticleeLife2022
Uncertainty alters the balance between incremental learning and episodic memory.
Article in eLife, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trade-offs between remembering and online evaluation in retrospective evaluation.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
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- Context induces distortions in value representations across multiple elicitation methods and learning modalities.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The Periaqueductal Gray Selectively Supports Reversal Learning During a Flexible Discrimination Task in Mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Episodic memory facilitates flexible decision-making via access to detailed events.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Article
- Noisy Memory Generates Value in Changing Environments.Adaptive behavior · 2025Article
- Episodic Memories Bias Contextual Threat Inferences after Aerobic and Mind-Body Exercise.Mental health and physical activity · 2025Article
- Differentiating Reinforcement Learning and Episodic Memory in Value-Based Decisions in Parkinson's Disease.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Age-related differences in trust decisions: when memory fails and appearances prevail.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2025Article
- Accurate Predictions Facilitate Robust Memory Encoding Independently From Stimulus Probability.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025Article
- Article
- Cognitive Graphs: Representational Substrates for Planning.Decision (Washington, D.C.) · 2024Article
- The Role of the Cerebellum in Learning to Predict Reward: Evidence from Cerebellar Ataxia.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2024Article
- Naturalistic reinforcement learning.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2024Review
- Principles of cognitive control over task focus and task switching.Nature reviews psychology · 2023Article
- Back to the future: Progressing memory research in eating disorders.The International journal of eating disorders · 2023Article
- Memory precision and age differentially predict the use of decision-making strategies across the lifespan.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Predictions transform memories: How expected versus unexpected events are integrated or separated in memory.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A key question in decision-making is how humans arbitrate between competing learning and memory systems to maximize reward. We address this question by probing the balance between the effects, on choice, of incremental trial-and-error learning versus episodic memories of individual events. Although a rich literature has studied incremental learning in isolation, the role of episodic memory in decision-making has only recently drawn focus, and little research disentangles their separate contributions. We hypothesized that the brain arbitrates rationally between these two systems, relying on each in circumstances to which it is most suited, as indicated by uncertainty. We tested this hypothesis by directly contrasting contributions of episodic and incremental influence to decisions, while manipulating the relative uncertainty of incremental learning using a well-established manipulation of reward volatility. Across two large, independent samples of young adults, participants traded these influences off rationally, depending more on episodic information when incremental summaries were more uncertain. These results support the proposal that the brain optimizes the balance between different forms of learning and memory according to their relative uncertainties and elucidate the circumstances under which episodic memory informs decisions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.