SHORT-TERM RECOGNITION MEMORY.
Abstract
The rapid build-up of false-positives in the continuous short-term recognition experiment and almost zero-slope function thereafter suggests that this index of practice inhibition, or of diffusion and exchange of elements between traces, may be a powerful yet simple tool for the analysis of similarity relations among stimuli, and for the generation of predictions about stimulus discriminability factors in associative learning. The better recognition memory for stimuli originally called 'old' even though they were actually 'new' seems to be a phenomenon of widespread occurrence and one that is not dependent in any way on the failure of the S to know that his original judgment of the stimulus as old was in fact incorrect. Experiments are now in progress in which the S not only makes the judgment of 'old' or 'new' but also indicates his confidence in his judgment. If, from these studies, it is found that false-positives--calling a new stimulus 'old'--which the S says were mere guesses, follow the short-term forgetting function of the 'new'-'old' while those new stimuli that he calls 'old' with confidence follow the forgetting function of the 'old'-'old,' then these different slopes will be accepted as an index of the summation of generalized habit strength and specific habit strength resulting from explicit occurrence of the specific event. This will serve as another useful tool in the understanding of the effects of repetition in learning and memory. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0656710
Entities
People
- Arnold Sameroff
- Arthur W. Melton
- Errol D. Schubot
Organizations
- University of Michigan