By Hallee Gauna
Introduction
“Survival of the fittest” is that old saying that goes on to describe that whoever comes out on top is guaranteed to survive and thrive. Adaptation is what we have to do to ensure the best outcome for survival, and it is not always a physical obstacle. Sometimes our memory is the reason we are able to come up with the survival strategies to adapt to our surroundings. This is called the survival and adaptive value, also known as survival processing and adaptive memory. So, what is survival processing and adaptive memory? Why does this pertain to our everyday lives, and why is it so valuable? Well, we all like to survive and live on to the next day. And, we all adapt to new obstacles everyday, but how much of that would you believe stems from our memory? So is it really “survival of the fittest” or survival of the best memory?
How Survival/Adaptive Value is Beneficial for College Students
Coming into a new setting as a first time college student may pose a new challenge that some are not always prepared for. Most are having to go through this next great chapter on their own without their parents which can be difficult for some.
Lots of people rely heavily on their parents for basic survival skills and the means of safety for a good life. So as we are gaining this knowledge through our parents, we often overlook how much of that becomes second nature to us as we continue to grow and gain means for survival.
Survival/Adaptive value is the idea that our memory is programmed in a way to fit the needs for survival. Human memory has been shaped by evolutionary processes so that our ancestors were able to solve major adaptive problems (4). Also, humans remember information processed for their survival relevance, a memorial benefit known as the survival processing effect (1). We take what we see and gain from our parents to mold the survival skills we need in order to march on. So, as students are making that shift into college life for the first time it really puts into perspective the basic human survival that is needed to live on your own. So how great did your parents teach you? And how great is your memory of what you were taught?
Where did Survival/Adaptive Value Stem From
Our memory is always evolving for survival. More specifically, it has been suggested that memory is biased or tuned to remember fitness-relevant information (3). Nature has shaped the unique characteristics of our memory systems, primarily through natural selection, because fitness advantages posed as a consequence of memory’s operation (3). This came to be around the time of Darwin and the original idea of evolution. Our memory and in extension to our brains, are always evolving from traditional survival values. So this dates back to the very beginning of our time. The adaptive memory framework proposed that biological memory systems, including those of humans, are the product of millions of years of natural selection (5). The reason we are able to remember all of these survival concepts is due to our recollection. Recollection involves bringing to mind rich details associated with a particular memory (2). We often adapt to familiar words that are associated with the reward given for the “right” decision or best survival choice.
Rewarding Effects of Memory
Memory is an adaptive form of knowledge we gain through our experiences throughout the course of our life. Memory can be seen as adaptive from two widely known perspectives. One suggests the memory system has evolved to encode and retrieve information relevant to survival in ancestral conditions(1). So basically the traditions we inherit as they are passed down to us are programmed a certain way to process these and use them growing up. This can be in relation to the life skills we gain from our parents and families to learn more independent ways. However, kind of on the flip side, the other perspective goes on to show that our memory system is biased towards information associated with the idea of reward (1). Whenever you do something that is deemed correct in the right vs. wrong circumstances we are often rewarded with something positive. This helps enable us to continue making those good choices to ensure the best outcome for any current situation. We were always told if we made the right decisions there was a good outcome to look forward to, so this often makes it more favorable to make the best, desirable decisions.
Conclusion
Going to college for the first time is always a challenge, especially when you believe that you know nothing about pursuing a life on your own. However, as you experience this new chapter just REMEMBER that our memory holds more than what you think it does. Our bodies are programmed to ensure we make the best survival choices even if we do not know what is actually correct. And who knows, there could be a sweet reward for making the correct choice! We have taken what we have learned growing up and are always going to adapt to overcome any great obstacle. College is no easy task, yet, we can always ensure we are doing what is best for our own journey. By referring back to our survival and adaptive values you can always make the best decision for your life. All thanks to “survival of the best memory!”
References
1. Forester, G., Kroneisen, M., Erdfelder, E., & Kamp, S. M. (2020). Adaptive Memory: Independent Effects of Survival Processing and Reward Motivation on Memory. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 14, 588100. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.588100
2. Forester, G., Kroneisen, M., Erdfelder, E., & Kamp, S. M. (2020). Survival processing modulates the neurocognitive mechanisms of episodic encoding. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 20(4), 717–729. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00798-1
3. James S. Nairne, Josefa N.S. Pandeirada. (2008). Adaptive memory: Is survival processing special? Journal of Memory and Language, 59(3), 377-385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2008.06.001
4. Kroneisen, M., Erdfelder, E., Groß, R. M., & Janczyk, M. (2024). Survival processing occupies the central bottleneck of cognitive processing: A psychological refractory period analysis. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 31(1), 274–282. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-023-02340-z
5. Seitz, B. M., Polack, C. W., & Miller, R. R. (2020). Adaptive Memory: Generality of the Parent Processing Effect and Effects of Biological Relatedness on Recall. Evolutionary psychological science, 6(3), 246–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-020-00233-1
This was a really good read. It always seems so crazy when I go to do something, and I catch myself thinking back to how my parents would have done it. Just the other day I needed to get a stain from my carpet, and I was able to think back to the time I saw my mom remove a stain from the couch and I was able to accomplish the task. Have you yourself witnessed this take effect? I cannot help but think this is more common than we think. “Survival of the memory” is something I see myself saying next time something like this occurs.