Human Memory: A Proposed System and its Control Processes

Abstract

This chapter presents a general theoretical framework of human memory and describes the results of a number of experiments designed to test specific models that can be derived from the overall theory. This general theoretical framework categorizes the memory system along two major dimensions. The first categorization distinguishes permanent, structural features of the system from control processes that can be readily modified or reprogrammed at the will of the subject. The second categorization divides memory into three structural components: the sensory register, the short-term store, and the long-term store. Incoming sensory information first enters the sensory register, where it resides for a very brief period of time, then decays and is lost. The short-term store is the subject's working memory; it receives selected inputs from the sensory register and also from long-term store. The chapter also discusses the control processes associated with the sensory register. The term control process refers to those processes that are not permanent features of memory, but are instead transient phenomena under the control of the subject; their appearance depends on several factors such as instructional set, the experimental task, and the past history of the subject.