The role of exploratory decision-making in enhancing episodic memory

The information generated by one person during volitional study (a sequence of study episodes of their own choosing) is presented to a following participant during “yoked” study blocks. By fixing the order and timing of study opportunities, comparing volitional and yoked encoding measures the effect of making decisions about how to study on memory perormance. Enhancements in memory for “volitional” exploration during encoding compared to “passive” observation In a recent study, Voss et al. (2011a,b) found that “volitional” exploration during learning led to improved memory for the items studied compared to passive observation of the same study sequence. Participants were shown six grids of objects to memorize, but each grid was masked such than only one object was visible at a time through a moving window: