Pub Date : 2025-06-05DOI: 10.1038/s44159-025-00458-6
David G. Nagy, Gergő Orbán, Charley M. Wu
Sensory experiences are encoded as memories, not as verbatim copies, but through interpretation and transformation. Rate distortion theory frames this process as compression in which irrelevant details are discarded. Despite the successes of approaches based on rate–distortion theory in aligning with empirical findings, these approaches assume that environmental regularities are known and unchanging and that surprising experiences are dismissed. However, the brain’s model of environmental regularities (semantic memory) is continually learned and refined, and surprising events have a pivotal role in this learning. In this Perspective, we offer a normative framework that addresses the interplay between semantic and episodic memory in the context of this computational problem that encompasses memory distortions, curriculum effects and prioritized replay. We propose to consider memory as solving an online structure learning problem, with semantic and episodic memory each having a role. We argue that semantic memory must learn the regularities that enable the efficient encoding of experience and that episodic memory supports this process by preserving surprising experiences in a relatively raw format for later interpretation. This framework opens up avenues towards understanding how adaptive compression and surprise shape the trajectory of learning and memory distortions. Memory cannot retain verbatim information about all experiences; some loss and compression is needed to meet resource constraints. In this Perspective, Nagy and colleagues describe a framework in which semantic memory encodes broad regularities and episodic memory retains specific information for key experiences.
{"title":"Adaptive compression as a unifying framework for episodic and semantic memory","authors":"David G. Nagy, Gergő Orbán, Charley M. Wu","doi":"10.1038/s44159-025-00458-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44159-025-00458-6","url":null,"abstract":"Sensory experiences are encoded as memories, not as verbatim copies, but through interpretation and transformation. Rate distortion theory frames this process as compression in which irrelevant details are discarded. Despite the successes of approaches based on rate–distortion theory in aligning with empirical findings, these approaches assume that environmental regularities are known and unchanging and that surprising experiences are dismissed. However, the brain’s model of environmental regularities (semantic memory) is continually learned and refined, and surprising events have a pivotal role in this learning. In this Perspective, we offer a normative framework that addresses the interplay between semantic and episodic memory in the context of this computational problem that encompasses memory distortions, curriculum effects and prioritized replay. We propose to consider memory as solving an online structure learning problem, with semantic and episodic memory each having a role. We argue that semantic memory must learn the regularities that enable the efficient encoding of experience and that episodic memory supports this process by preserving surprising experiences in a relatively raw format for later interpretation. This framework opens up avenues towards understanding how adaptive compression and surprise shape the trajectory of learning and memory distortions. Memory cannot retain verbatim information about all experiences; some loss and compression is needed to meet resource constraints. In this Perspective, Nagy and colleagues describe a framework in which semantic memory encodes broad regularities and episodic memory retains specific information for key experiences.","PeriodicalId":74249,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews psychology","volume":"4 7","pages":"484-498"},"PeriodicalIF":21.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-04DOI: 10.1038/s44159-025-00460-y
Nicolas Murgueitio
{"title":"Mental constructs of the social world following abusive caregiving","authors":"Nicolas Murgueitio","doi":"10.1038/s44159-025-00460-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44159-025-00460-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":74249,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews psychology","volume":"4 7","pages":"438-438"},"PeriodicalIF":21.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-03DOI: 10.1038/s44159-025-00461-x
Brandon A. Carrillo
{"title":"Stereotyped beliefs about the self are acquired early","authors":"Brandon A. Carrillo","doi":"10.1038/s44159-025-00461-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44159-025-00461-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":74249,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews psychology","volume":"4 7","pages":"439-439"},"PeriodicalIF":21.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-20DOI: 10.1038/s44159-025-00454-w
Michael H. Connors, Brian Draper, Anne P. F. Wand, Diego De Leo, Simone Reppermund
Older people have higher suicide rates and engage in self-harm with greater intent to die, higher lethality and greater risk of eventual suicide than people in other age groups. However, research and interventions to address suicide and self-harm in older people remain limited. In this Review, we consider the unique challenges faced by older people in relation to suicide and self-harm. We integrate research on risk factors, psychological theories on underlying mechanisms, and public health interventions and clinical treatments specific to this age group. We highlight age-related challenges to health, independence, purpose, social role and social connection, and barriers to care related to ageism and the accessibility of mental health services. We discuss directions for future research with a particular focus on understudied and high-risk groups, moderating factors and interventions. Older adults have the highest suicide rates of any age group, but the mechanisms leading to this behaviour remain understudied. In this Review, Connors et al. integrate epidemiological research with psychological theories and interventions to better understand and prevent suicide and self-harm in older adults.
{"title":"Suicide and self-harm in older adults","authors":"Michael H. Connors, Brian Draper, Anne P. F. Wand, Diego De Leo, Simone Reppermund","doi":"10.1038/s44159-025-00454-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44159-025-00454-w","url":null,"abstract":"Older people have higher suicide rates and engage in self-harm with greater intent to die, higher lethality and greater risk of eventual suicide than people in other age groups. However, research and interventions to address suicide and self-harm in older people remain limited. In this Review, we consider the unique challenges faced by older people in relation to suicide and self-harm. We integrate research on risk factors, psychological theories on underlying mechanisms, and public health interventions and clinical treatments specific to this age group. We highlight age-related challenges to health, independence, purpose, social role and social connection, and barriers to care related to ageism and the accessibility of mental health services. We discuss directions for future research with a particular focus on understudied and high-risk groups, moderating factors and interventions. Older adults have the highest suicide rates of any age group, but the mechanisms leading to this behaviour remain understudied. In this Review, Connors et al. integrate epidemiological research with psychological theories and interventions to better understand and prevent suicide and self-harm in older adults.","PeriodicalId":74249,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews psychology","volume":"4 7","pages":"440-456"},"PeriodicalIF":21.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1038/s44159-025-00456-8
Konstantinos Voudouris, Lucy Cheke, Eric Schulz
Researchers are increasingly considering the cognitive capacities of artificial intelligence systems. Comparative cognition offers a helpful framework to avoid both overstating and understating these capacities.
{"title":"Bringing comparative cognition approaches to AI systems","authors":"Konstantinos Voudouris, Lucy Cheke, Eric Schulz","doi":"10.1038/s44159-025-00456-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44159-025-00456-8","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers are increasingly considering the cognitive capacities of artificial intelligence systems. Comparative cognition offers a helpful framework to avoid both overstating and understating these capacities.","PeriodicalId":74249,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews psychology","volume":"4 6","pages":"363-364"},"PeriodicalIF":21.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-08DOI: 10.1038/s44159-025-00451-z
Anna M. Borghi, Claudia Mazzuca, Luca Tummolini
Abstractness — the capability to form and use abstract concepts, like ‘fantasy’ — is pivotal to human cognition. Different abstract concepts are characterized by different degrees of sensorimotor, interoceptive, emotional, linguistic and social aspects. In this Perspective, we propose a social route to abstractness, highlighting the role of social interaction and conceptual flexibility in abstract concept acquisition and use. We distinguish two notions: ‘socialness’, the idea that the content of abstract concepts evokes more social aspects than concrete concepts, and ‘social metacognition’, a process that includes a monitoring and an interactive phase. Compared with concrete concepts, social support is more critical to acquiring abstract concepts and to aligning and co-building conceptual meaning while using them. We also introduce a semantic dimension, vagueness, which distinguishes abstract concepts with more determinate meaning (such as some scientific and magnitude concepts) and abstract concepts whose meaning remains vague and socially negotiable. We connect the literatures on concepts, knowledge outsourcing and knowledge communities and highlight open research questions to test the social route to abstractness. The capability to use abstract concepts such as ‘justice’ is a key part of human cognition. In this Perspective, Borghi et al. highlight distinct levels of social interaction and conceptual flexibility in the acquisition and use of abstract concepts.
{"title":"The role of social interaction in the formation and use of abstract concepts","authors":"Anna M. Borghi, Claudia Mazzuca, Luca Tummolini","doi":"10.1038/s44159-025-00451-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44159-025-00451-z","url":null,"abstract":"Abstractness — the capability to form and use abstract concepts, like ‘fantasy’ — is pivotal to human cognition. Different abstract concepts are characterized by different degrees of sensorimotor, interoceptive, emotional, linguistic and social aspects. In this Perspective, we propose a social route to abstractness, highlighting the role of social interaction and conceptual flexibility in abstract concept acquisition and use. We distinguish two notions: ‘socialness’, the idea that the content of abstract concepts evokes more social aspects than concrete concepts, and ‘social metacognition’, a process that includes a monitoring and an interactive phase. Compared with concrete concepts, social support is more critical to acquiring abstract concepts and to aligning and co-building conceptual meaning while using them. We also introduce a semantic dimension, vagueness, which distinguishes abstract concepts with more determinate meaning (such as some scientific and magnitude concepts) and abstract concepts whose meaning remains vague and socially negotiable. We connect the literatures on concepts, knowledge outsourcing and knowledge communities and highlight open research questions to test the social route to abstractness. The capability to use abstract concepts such as ‘justice’ is a key part of human cognition. In this Perspective, Borghi et al. highlight distinct levels of social interaction and conceptual flexibility in the acquisition and use of abstract concepts.","PeriodicalId":74249,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews psychology","volume":"4 7","pages":"470-483"},"PeriodicalIF":21.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-06DOI: 10.1038/s44159-025-00448-8
Roberto González, Héctor Carvacho, Nicole Tausch
There have been widespread social changes in the past decade, including changes in gender norms, increases in political polarization and populism, and noticeable shifts toward sustainability. In this Review, we analyse the psychological processes that drive social change, considering factors at the group and individual levels of analysis. We centre our analysis around the concept of social norms — socially shared views of what is common or desirable — and argue that the processes that trigger social change often begin when there is a substantive tension between norms within society. Normative tension can occur vertically between norms at the societal level and the norms that emerge at the group level, or between individuals’ normative preferences and the norms of their groups. Normative tension can also occur horizontally between the norms that different groups have regarding their values, preferences and behaviours. We explain how normative tension mobilizes individuals to engage in collective action and how conflicting social norms are contested at the group level. We also highlight individual differences that predispose people to challenge or defend existing social norms. Together, our Review highlights the complex interactions between societal, group and individual-level variables in societal transformations. Social norms are the formal and informal rules that define acceptable and desirable group member behaviour. In this Review, Gonzalez et al. explain how tensions between societal and group norms, between individual and group norms, and between norms of different groups mobilize collective action and promote social change.
{"title":"Psychological processes underlying normative transformation and social change","authors":"Roberto González, Héctor Carvacho, Nicole Tausch","doi":"10.1038/s44159-025-00448-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44159-025-00448-8","url":null,"abstract":"There have been widespread social changes in the past decade, including changes in gender norms, increases in political polarization and populism, and noticeable shifts toward sustainability. In this Review, we analyse the psychological processes that drive social change, considering factors at the group and individual levels of analysis. We centre our analysis around the concept of social norms — socially shared views of what is common or desirable — and argue that the processes that trigger social change often begin when there is a substantive tension between norms within society. Normative tension can occur vertically between norms at the societal level and the norms that emerge at the group level, or between individuals’ normative preferences and the norms of their groups. Normative tension can also occur horizontally between the norms that different groups have regarding their values, preferences and behaviours. We explain how normative tension mobilizes individuals to engage in collective action and how conflicting social norms are contested at the group level. We also highlight individual differences that predispose people to challenge or defend existing social norms. Together, our Review highlights the complex interactions between societal, group and individual-level variables in societal transformations. Social norms are the formal and informal rules that define acceptable and desirable group member behaviour. In this Review, Gonzalez et al. explain how tensions between societal and group norms, between individual and group norms, and between norms of different groups mobilize collective action and promote social change.","PeriodicalId":74249,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews psychology","volume":"4 6","pages":"404-416"},"PeriodicalIF":21.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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