ABSTRACT

Human memory likely evolved to serve adaptive functions, that is, to help maximise our chances of survival and reproduction. One demonstration of such adaptiveness is the increased retention of information processed in survival contexts, the so-called Survival Processing Effect (SPE). This study examined this effect in a native (L1) and in a second language (L2). This comparison is relevant to explore if emotionality is involved in the SPE, as emotional activation seems to be larger in L1 than in L2. Following the original survival processing procedure, participants rated the relevance of information to the survival and moving scenarios and performed a recognition (Experiment 1) or a free recall (Experiment 2) task in L1 or L2. In both experiments, the SPE was replicated in L1 but not in L2. The absence of the effect when emotional activation is less likely suggests that emotionality might play a role in the survival processing effect; nevertheless, additional studies are needed to further investigate this hypothesis.

摘要

人类记忆可能进化为具有适应性功能，即帮助最大化我们的生存和繁殖机会。这种适应性的一个证明是在生存环境中处理的信息的保留增加，即所谓的生存处理效应 (SPE)。本研究在母语 (L1) 和第二语言 (L2) 中检验了这种效果。这种比较与探索 SPE 中是否涉及情绪有关，因为 L1 中的情绪激活似乎比 L2 中更大。按照原始的生存处理程序，参与者对信息与生存和移动场景的相关性进行评分，并在 L1 或 L2 中执行识别（实验 1）或自由回忆（实验 2）任务。在这两个实验中，SPE 在 L1 中复制，但不在 L2 中复制。当情绪激活的可能性较小时，该效应不存在表明情绪可能在生存加工效应中发挥作用；尽管如此，还需要更多的研究来进一步调查这一假设。