Weishun Zhong
@weishunzhong.bsky.social
Postdoctoral Member @ Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Recent Physics PhD @ MIT. Research in Neuroscience, Physics, and AI.
www.weishunzhong.com
www.weishunzhong.com
Reposted by Weishun Zhong
A new mathematical framework suggests that humans store narrative memories as "random trees," where abstract summaries and detailed events are organized hierarchically in memory. doi.org/g9stjx
Mathematical model reveals how humans store narrative memories using 'random trees'
Humans can remember various types of information, including facts, dates, events and even intricate narratives. Understanding how meaningful stories are stored in people's memory has been a key objective of many cognitive psychology studies.
medicalxpress.com
July 11, 2025 at 11:02 AM
A new mathematical framework suggests that humans store narrative memories as "random trees," where abstract summaries and detailed events are organized hierarchically in memory. doi.org/g9stjx
I am not an expert in narratology, but it seems to focus on the semantic structure within individual stories. We are kind of taking the “spherical cow” approach here: assuming that if we look at a sufficiently large number of stories and people’s memories, the individual differences average out.
I have no idea (yet) quite what to make of this paper on how we recall narratives hierarchically except to say that (a) it looks fascinating, and (b) being in PRL, I wonder if it makes connection with the well-established field of narratology.
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
Random Tree Model of Meaningful Memory
The memory of a story appears to have a tree-like structure, with abstract summaries branching out into more specific details.
journals.aps.org
June 18, 2025 at 11:30 PM
I am not an expert in narratology, but it seems to focus on the semantic structure within individual stories. We are kind of taking the “spherical cow” approach here: assuming that if we look at a sufficiently large number of stories and people’s memories, the individual differences average out.
❤️"The Physics of Romeo and Juliet": scientific evidence for "I only just met you, but I feel like I've known you for my entire life. "
📖Excited to share that our paper is selected as an Editor's Suggestion in PRL.
💡Curious about how statistical mechanics has anything to do with stories? Read on.
📖Excited to share that our paper is selected as an Editor's Suggestion in PRL.
💡Curious about how statistical mechanics has anything to do with stories? Read on.
If you’ve seen Romeo and Juliet, you likely can summarize the plot in a single sentence that appears nowhere in the play. A new physics-inspired theory aims to explain our story-recalling ability by modeling the memory of a story as a hierarchical tree.
How We Remember Stories
The memory of a story appears to have a tree-like structure, with abstract summaries branching out into more specific details.
physics.aps.org
June 18, 2025 at 11:20 PM
❤️"The Physics of Romeo and Juliet": scientific evidence for "I only just met you, but I feel like I've known you for my entire life. "
📖Excited to share that our paper is selected as an Editor's Suggestion in PRL.
💡Curious about how statistical mechanics has anything to do with stories? Read on.
📖Excited to share that our paper is selected as an Editor's Suggestion in PRL.
💡Curious about how statistical mechanics has anything to do with stories? Read on.
Reposted by Weishun Zhong
Random Tree Model of Meaningful Memory https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.11.627835v1
December 17, 2024 at 3:15 AM
Random Tree Model of Meaningful Memory https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.11.627835v1