A Hierarchical Bayesian Model of Memory for Spatial Memory

Episodic memory and schema knowledge are known to interact when we recall everyday events – such as the location of an object in a scene. Recent Bayesian models of memory have assumed that this interaction is a function of the trade-off between the strength of episodic memory and schema knowledge. Ramey et at. (2022) empirically quantified this relationship using the recollection-familiarity paradigm as a proxy for memory strength. They also manipulated the congruency/incongruence of object locations in natural scenes as a proxy for schema strength. Here we replicate their findings and then model the effects using a Hierarchical Bayesian model of memory. We model familiarity/recollection as memory strength, and the congruence versus incongruence as having different priors - with the congruent prior linked to accuracy for congruent new scenes in the experimental data, and the incongruent prior linked to accuracy for incongruent new scenes. The model successfully captures 1) the greater accuracy for schema-congruent versus incongruent object locations 2) the decreasing difference in accuracy between congruent and incongruent scenes across familiarity confidence, and 3) the elimination of the accuracy difference for recollected scenes. We also evaluated the dual-process signal detection theory claim that recollection responses reflect a distinct recollection process. We found that the best fitting parameters for memory precision had a curvelinear relationship where memory precision gradually improved with increasing familiarity and then substantially changed for recollected responses.