Abstract
Memory allows us to draw on past experiences to inform behaviour in the present. However, memories rarely match the situation at hand exactly, and new situations regularly trigger multiple related memories where only some are relevant to act upon. The flexibility of human memory systems is largely attributed to the ability to disregard irrelevant, but salient, memories in favour of relevant ones. This is considered an expression of an executive function responsible for suppressing irrelevant memories, associated with the prefrontal cortex. It is unclear to what extent animals have access to this ability. Here, we demonstrate, in a series of tool-use tasks designed to evoke conflicting memories, that chimpanzees and an orangutan suffer from this conflict but overcome it in favour of a more relevant memory. Such mnemonic flexibility is among the most advanced expressions of executive function shown in animals to date and might explain several behaviours related to tool-use, innovation, planning and more.
Highlights
Memory allows us to draw on past experiences to inform behaviour in the present
The results suggest that great apes are able to solve problems by using, and sorting between, memory traces of similar experiences
The apes suffered from retrieval competition but overcame the memory interference as they eventually succeeded in solving the problem
Summary
Memory allows us to draw on past experiences to inform behaviour in the present. memories rarely match the situation at hand exactly, and new situations regularly trigger multiple related memories where only some are relevant to act upon. In a memory conflict resolution test, which we present here, the animal has to show that it recognizes that the initial salient memory trace is irrelevant for the task and needs to actively overcome it in favour of another memory that leads to the correct solution. Whether this would be a better test of meta-memory is a matter for a theoretical debate, but it reveals a flexibility that cannot be revealed in previous paradigms. It is one thing to realize that your currently retrieved memory is inapplicable, and another to selectively identify a more relevant one
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