Integrating Episodic and Semantic Information in Memory for Natural Scenes

Recall of objects in natural scenes can be influenced not only by episodic but also by semantic memory. To model the statistical regularities that might be encoded in semantic memory, we applied a topic model to a large database of labeled images. We then incorporated the learned topics in a dual route topic model for recall that explains how and why episodic memories are combined with semantic memories. The dual route model was applied to an empirical study in which people recall objects from scenes under varying amounts of study time. The dual route model explains how the trade-off between episodic and semantic memory is affected by study time, output position, and also congruity of the object with the scene context.