Educators generally accept that basic learning and memory processes are a product of evolution, guided by natural selection. Less well accepted is the idea that ancestral selection pressures continue to shape modern memory functioning. In this article, I review evidence suggesting that attention to nature’s criterion—the enhancement of fitness—is needed to explain fully how and why people remember. Thinking functionally about memory, and adopting an evolutionary perspective in the laboratory, has led to recent discoveries with clear implications for learning in the classroom. For example, our memory systems appear to be tuned to animacy (the distinction between living and nonliving things) which, in turn, can play a role in enhancing foreign language acquisition. Effective learning management systems need to align with students’ prior knowledge, skill, and interest levels, but also with the inherent content biases or “tunings” that are representative of all people.

教育工作者普遍认为，基本的学习和记忆过程是进化的产物，受自然选择的引导。不太被接受的观点是祖先选择压力继续塑造现代记忆功能。在这篇文章中，我回顾了一些证据，这些证据表明需要关注自然标准——增强健康——才能充分解释人们如何以及为什么会记住。从功能上思考记忆，并在实验室中采用进化的观点，导致了最近的发现，这些发现对课堂学习具有明确的意义。例如，我们的记忆系统似乎被调整为有生命力（生物和非生物之间的区别），这反过来可以在增强外语习得方面发挥作用。有效的学习管理系统需要与学生的先前知识保持一致，