How Memories Aid in Identifying Significant New Experiences

A new study published in Science Advances has found that established memories make snails more likely to form new long-term memories of related future events that they might otherwise have ignored. The study examined how past learning influences future learning and discovered a simple mechanism that alters a snail's perception of those events. The researchers concluded that the strong training pushed the snails into a "learning-rich" period in which the threshold for memory formation was lower, enabling them to learn things they otherwise would not have.