HUMAN MEMORY. A PARTIAL MODEL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR RETROACTIVE PHENOMENA
Abstract
After a consideration of experimental and other evidence, about the functioning of human memory, four features were selected as most salient, and a model proposed to account for them. The model is based upon certain concepts borrowed from the computer field and a consideration of information transmission and storage. It is meant to make psychological sense and, at the same time, to be realizable in a computer for a study of its properties. The model led to deductions about phenomena of retroaction, and four experiments were conducted to test the deductions. The first experiment involved colored geometrical forms and studied the differential effects of interpolated conditions of low and high correlation between color and form. The second experiment studied the differential effects of variation in a structure of linkages between figures and names on the recall of an ambiguously structured similar situation. The third experiment studied the types of errors caused in the recall of a list of word paired associates by two lists varying in the meaningfulness of the stimulus-response pairings. The fourth experiment studied the effects of training procedures on the recall of doubly structured number matrices, and the differential effects of interpolated tasks, depending upon training procedures. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1961
- Accession Number
- AD0259526
Entities
People
- John Ross
Organizations
- Princeton University