The Department of Cognitive Science
cordially invites you to the public defense of the PhD thesis
Representation of Uncertainty and Recall Precision in Long-Term Episodic and Semantic
Memories
by
Dávid Ádám Magas
THURSDAY, SepteMber 11, 4 P.M. CET
Room C322 (CEU, Quellenstrasse 51, 1100 Vienna)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/93244559610?pwd=24NXxnQ9bYEv3Pc7f26p70fvX2JoVF.1&…
Meeting ID: 932 4455 9610 Passcode: 488643
PRIMARY SUPERVISOR: József Fiser (CEU)
SECONDARY SUPERVISOR: Máté Lengyel (CEU)
Members of the Dissertation Committee:
Ernő Téglás, Chair, CEU
Professor Pernille Hemmer (Rutgers
University)<https://ifh.rutgers.edu/faculty_staff/pernille-hemmer/> as External
examiner
Professor Timothy Brady (UC San
Diego)<https://psychology.ucsd.edu/people/profiles/tbrady.html> as External examiner
*Anyone not affiliated with CEU wishing to attend in-person in Vienna must RSVP
here<https://forms.office.com/Pages/DesignPageV2.aspx?origin=NeoPortalPa…
to get access to the lecture hall.
ABSTRACT |Episodic memory has often been characterized as detailed autonoetic awareness of
one's past events. In my dissertation, I reconceptualize episodic memory as part of a
general knowledge structure or long-term semantic memory. I offer a common framework in
which the recall precision and the representation of uncertainty in short-term and
long-term episodic and semantic memory can be investigated. As a result, my work bridges
important gaps between perception, long-term episodic and semantic memory, and provides
insights into the detailed form in which items in perception and long-term memory are
encoded and recalled.
In Chapter 2, I analyze recall precision and the representation of uncertainty in
perceptual decision-making and in long-term episodic memories without any semantic
regularity imposed on them. I show that items in perception and long-term episodic memory
are encoded and recalled in a probabilistic manner. In Chapter 3, I organize episodic
elements into simple scenes with both perceptual and semantic connections between the
elements. I demonstrate that semantic connections are dominant as opposed to perceptual
ones in increasing recall precision. Furthermore, I show that the structure in which scene
elements are stored in long-term memory corresponds to the recurring input schema of the
scenes. In Chapter 4, I introduce overarching semantic regularity into the input and
analyze how it affects recall precision and the representation of uncertainty. I show that
semantic regularity improves overall recall precision. In addition, I show that this
increase was a result of true semantic learning, where people learnt the structure of the
input and used that knowledge exclusively in several responses. Furthermore, I point out
major individual differences in episodic and semantic learning ability across
participants. Lastly, show that the fundamentally probabilistic representation of
individual items does not change despite learning the overarching semantic regularity. In
Chapter 5, I analyze the effect of attention on episodic and semantic learning and show
that semantic but not episodic learning remains intact with divided attention.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hosted by the Department of Cognitive Science
[cid:image001.png@01DC20D1.AD1E2580]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
GyörgyNÉ Finta (Réka)
Department Coordinator
Department of cognitive SCience
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[cid:image002.jpg@01DC20D1.AD1E2580]
CEU GmbH - CEU Central European University private university
Quellenstrasse 51, A-1100 Wien, Room B502
Office: +43 125230 5138
cognitivescience.ceu.edu<https://cognitivescience.ceu.edu/>|
www.ceu.edu<http://www.ceu.edu/>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CEU is committed to energy and environmental sustainability
www.ceu.hu/sustainability<http://www.ceu.hu/sustainability>
[
https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4wJmntYV9xI46HE4vvhea1QVsjj…]
Please, consider your environmental responsibility. Before printing this e-mail message,
ask yourself whether you really need a hard copy.
______________________________________________
Subscribe by sending an empty mail to talks-subscribe(a)cogsci.ceu.edu
Unsubscribe by sending an empty mail to talks-unsubscribe(a)cogsci.ceu.edu