1 Feb
1994
1 Feb
'94
2:52 a.m.
Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article by:
MS Humphreys, J Wiles & S Dennis
on:
TOWARD A THEORY OF HUMAN MEMORY: DATA STRUCTURES AND ACCESS PROCESSES
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____________________________________________________________________
TOWARD A THEORY OF HUMAN MEMORY:
DATA STRUCTURES AND ACCESS PROCESSES
Michael S. Humphreys, Department of Psychology
Janet Wiles, Departments of Psychology and Computer Science
Simon Dennis, Department of Computer Science
University of Queensland
QLD 4072 Australia
mh(a)psych.psy.uq.oz.au
KEYWORDS: amnesia, binding, context, data structure, lexical
decision, memory access, perceptual identification, recall,
recognition, representation.
ABSTRACT: A theory of the data structures and access processes of
human memory is proposed and demonstrated on 10 tasks. The two
starting points are Marr's (1982) ideas about the levels at which
we can understand an information processing device and the standard
laboratory paradigms which demonstrate the power and complexity of
human memory. The theory suggests how to capture the functional
characteristics of human memory (e.g., analogies, reasoning, etc.)
without having to be concerned with implementational details. Ours
is not a performance theory. We specify what is computed by the
memory system with a multidimensional task classification which
encompasses existing classifications (e.g., the distinction between
implicit and explicit, data driven and conceptually driven, and
simple associative (2-way bindings) and higher order tasks (3-way
bindings). This provides a broad basis for new experimentation.
Our formal language clarifies the binding problem in episodic
memory, the role of input pathways in both episodic and semantic
(lexical) memory, the importance of the input set in episodic
memory, and the ubiquitous calculation of an intersection in
theories of episodic and lexical access.
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