@inproceedings{ding-wu-2026-probing,
title = "Probing Stability{--}Plasticity Tradeoffs in Agent Memory through Cognitive Experimental Paradigms",
author = "Ding, Jiaqi and
Wu, Guorong",
editor = "Lee, Hung-Yi and
Dev, Sunipa and
Li, Jessy and
Elliott, Desmond",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing",
month = oct,
year = "2026",
address = "Budapest, Hungary",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.emnlp-main.2473/",
pages = "56130--56149",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-459-0",
abstract = "Agent memory systems are increasingly used to maintain long-term user preferences, task states and evolving facts, but current evaluations often collapse memory behavior into final-answer accuracy. We introduce **MemProbe** a cognitive-science-inspired framework for diagnosing stability{--}plasticity tradeoffs in agent memory. The framework is motivated by a core insight from cognitive memory research: memory is reconstructive and shaped by interference, source reliability, reinforcement, and reactivation. **MemProbe** turns this insight into four reusable experimental paradigms (interference, misinformation, consolidation strength, and reconsolidation window) that manipulate when a memory should be updated, preserved, or treated as uncertain. It further decomposes correctness into behavioral profiles that reveal how systems update, preserve, attribute, and temporally organize information. We instantiate these paradigms in a 56-episode diagnostic suite and evaluate six incremental memory systems under a unified protocol. Results show that systems with similar aggregate scores exhibit distinct behavioral profiles. **MemProbe** provides such a diagnostic lens, turning aggregate performance into interpretable profiles of memory maintenance over time."
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<abstract>Agent memory systems are increasingly used to maintain long-term user preferences, task states and evolving facts, but current evaluations often collapse memory behavior into final-answer accuracy. We introduce **MemProbe** a cognitive-science-inspired framework for diagnosing stability–plasticity tradeoffs in agent memory. The framework is motivated by a core insight from cognitive memory research: memory is reconstructive and shaped by interference, source reliability, reinforcement, and reactivation. **MemProbe** turns this insight into four reusable experimental paradigms (interference, misinformation, consolidation strength, and reconsolidation window) that manipulate when a memory should be updated, preserved, or treated as uncertain. It further decomposes correctness into behavioral profiles that reveal how systems update, preserve, attribute, and temporally organize information. We instantiate these paradigms in a 56-episode diagnostic suite and evaluate six incremental memory systems under a unified protocol. Results show that systems with similar aggregate scores exhibit distinct behavioral profiles. **MemProbe** provides such a diagnostic lens, turning aggregate performance into interpretable profiles of memory maintenance over time.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Probing Stability–Plasticity Tradeoffs in Agent Memory through Cognitive Experimental Paradigms
%A Ding, Jiaqi
%A Wu, Guorong
%Y Lee, Hung-Yi
%Y Dev, Sunipa
%Y Li, Jessy
%Y Elliott, Desmond
%S Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
%D 2026
%8 October
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Budapest, Hungary
%@ 979-8-89176-459-0
%F ding-wu-2026-probing
%X Agent memory systems are increasingly used to maintain long-term user preferences, task states and evolving facts, but current evaluations often collapse memory behavior into final-answer accuracy. We introduce **MemProbe** a cognitive-science-inspired framework for diagnosing stability–plasticity tradeoffs in agent memory. The framework is motivated by a core insight from cognitive memory research: memory is reconstructive and shaped by interference, source reliability, reinforcement, and reactivation. **MemProbe** turns this insight into four reusable experimental paradigms (interference, misinformation, consolidation strength, and reconsolidation window) that manipulate when a memory should be updated, preserved, or treated as uncertain. It further decomposes correctness into behavioral profiles that reveal how systems update, preserve, attribute, and temporally organize information. We instantiate these paradigms in a 56-episode diagnostic suite and evaluate six incremental memory systems under a unified protocol. Results show that systems with similar aggregate scores exhibit distinct behavioral profiles. **MemProbe** provides such a diagnostic lens, turning aggregate performance into interpretable profiles of memory maintenance over time.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.emnlp-main.2473/
%P 56130-56149
Markdown (Informal)
[Probing Stability–Plasticity Tradeoffs in Agent Memory through Cognitive Experimental Paradigms](https://aclanthology.org/2026.emnlp-main.2473/) (Ding & Wu, EMNLP 2026)
ACL