When words are processed for their fitness-relevance (e.g., for finding food), they are remembered better than when they are processed for non-fitness issues (e.g., for their pleasantness): the survival processing advantage. In the present research, we investigated memory performance as a function of the level of relevance of words (high versus low) to survival issues (e.g., avoiding predators). In Study 1, a sample of French adults had to rate 732 words on the survival problems of “avoiding predators”, “avoiding contamination” or “finding food and water”. Reliability measures were computed for the ratings and descriptive statistical analyses and bivariate correlations as well as multiple linear regression analyses were performed. The entire set of survival ratings is available as Supplemental Material. Three experiments were then conducted using the collected ratingsto investigate whether the survival processing advantage in memory was moderated by the relation between relevance ratings (high versus low relevance) and survival contexts (“predation” [Experiment 1], “contamination” [Experiment 2], “food and water” [Experiment 3]). Words of high survival relevance were recalled better when encoded either for survival or for pleasantness. Furthermore, a larger survival processing advantage was found for words rated high on survival-related dimensions than for words rated in the pleasantness (control) condition.
Ratings of survival-related dimensions for a set of 732 words, their relationships with other psycholinguistic variables and memory performance
