Memories are encoded in a manner that depends on our knowledge and expectations (“schemas”). Consistent with this, expertise tends to improve memory: Experts have elaborated schemas in their domains of expertise, allowing them to efficiently represent information in this domain (e.g., chess experts have enhanced memory for realistic chess layouts). On the other hand, in most situations, people tend to remember abnormal or surprising items best—those that are also rare or out-of-the-ordinary occurrences (e.g., surprising—but not random—chess board configurations). This occurs, in part, because such images are distinctive relative to other images. In the current work, we ask how these factors interact in a particularly interesting case—the domain of radiology, where experts actively search for abnormalities. Abnormality in mammograms is typically focal but can be perceived in the global “gist” of the image. We ask whether, relative to novices, expert radiologists show improved memory for mammograms. We also test for any additional advantage for abnormal mammograms that can be thought of as unexpected or rare stimuli in screening. We find that experts have enhanced memory for focally abnormal images relative to normal images. However, radiologists showed no memory benefit for images of the breast that were not focally abnormal, but were only abnormal in their gist. Our results speak to the role of schemas and abnormality in expertise; the necessity for spatially localized abnormalities versus abnormalities in the gist in enhancing memory; and the nature of memory and decision-making in radiologists.

记忆的编码方式取决于我们的知识和期望（“模式”）。与此一致，专业知识往往会提高记忆力：专家们在他们的专业领域精心设计了模式，使他们能够有效地表示该领域的信息（例如，国际象棋专家对现实的国际象棋布局具有增强的记忆力）。另一方面，在大多数情况下，人们往往最容易记住异常或令人惊讶的项目——那些也是罕见或不寻常的事件（例如，令人惊讶的——但不是随机的——棋盘配置）。发生这种情况的部分原因是这些图像相对于其他图像是独特的。在当前的工作中，我们在一个特别有趣的案例中询问这些因素如何相互作用 - 放射学领域，专家们积极寻找异常。乳房 X 光照片中的异常通常是焦点，但可以在图像的全局“要点”中感知。我们询问，相对于新手，放射科专家是否对乳房 X 光照片的记忆力有所改善。我们还测试了异常乳房 X 光照片的任何额外优势，这些异常乳房 X 光照片在筛查中可能被认为是意外或罕见的刺激。我们发现专家对局部异常图像相对于正常图像的记忆力有所增强。然而，放射科医师显示，对于非局灶性异常而仅在其要点上异常的乳房图像，没有记忆益处。我们的结果说明了模式和异常在专业知识中的作用；空间局部异常与要点异常在增强记忆中的必要性；以及放射科医生的记忆和决策的性质。