Current Theories Of Memory Research Articles

The effect of participation in a conversation on recognition and identification of the speakers' voices.

Subjects' recognition of their own voice, the voice of a person they had a conversation with, and the voices of two people they heard converse, were compared. They listened to or conversed with each voice for five minutes and then attempted to recognize each voice from among 26 voices saying the same test phrase. In general, subjects recognized the voice of their conversational partner better than the voices of people they had listened to passively. They did not recognize their own voice better than that of their partner. Subjects who recognized their own voice always identified it without error. Although subjects correctly identified other voices they correctly recognized, they also falsely identified voices they falsely recognized. These results are discussed with respect to their practical implications for voice identification by witnesses in legal proceedings and with respect to current theories of memory.

Variations on active learning

Although current theories of memory emphasize the fact that learning is an active process, there is little consensus on the role of active learning. This paper attempts to provide a more precise characterization of active learning in the acquisition of computer skills. The analysis of verbal protocols suggests that active learning varies on at least two dimensions: schema orientation and learning strategy. Schema orientation refers to the type of information the learner is acquiring and varies from relational information to procedural information. Learning strategy describes how the information is acquired. Some people prefer to be internally driven and form their own plans for learning. Others are externally driven and allow the instructional materials to guide their learning. These differences need to be taken into account in describing learning and in designing instructional materials.

The self as memory processing

Different areas of theoretical investigation are briefly discussed in relation to competing paradigms and a theory of self. Clarification of these areas is taken to be contingent on resolution of two theoretical issues. Is the self to be treated as a “caused” or as a “causing” event? What is the nature of the storage and retrieval processes related to the enactment of different self-relevant behaviors? In regard to the issue of cause, interpretations in terms of two major theoretical paradigms, mechanism and contextualism, are briefly outlined and the validity of contextual theory is discussed. In regard to the issue of storage, examination of current theories of memory lead to a consideration of self-representation as involving both generic and episodic memory structures that possess a number of organizational properties relevant to an understanding of consistency and variability in a person's enactment of self-relevant behavior. In light of these considerations, the advantages of contextual formulations of self-theory are reconsidered and current, related research is noted.

The prominence of lexical information in memory representations of meaning

Many current theories of memory assume that memory representations are abstract or conceptual in nature and that they exclude specific lexical information. It is argued that (a) the results of previous research in this area do not support the exclusion of lexical information from memory representations; and (b) an alternative word-based theory of memory provides more efficient representations and processes than the abstract theory. The results of three experiments conducted in the present study suggest that lexical information is present and persists in memory representations of meaning. Experiment 1 showed that, after a 10-minute filled interval, subjects reliably recognized studied sentences with greater confidence than synonymous distractors. Experiment 2 showed that subjects verified studied sentences faster than true synonymous sentences, again after a 10-minute filled interval. Experiment 3 showed that the presence of identical words in learned sentences caused interference in verifying the sentences, while the presence of synonymous words did not. These considerations suggest that the word-based theory of memory should be preferred over the available theoretical alternatives.

Linguistic Theory, Language Teaching, Sociolinguistics: Can They Be Interrelated?

Although the present findings may be difficult to rationalize completely with respect to current theories of memory, their importance lies in the fact that, on a variety of measures, it tudy 1 and the 1st semest r stud nt in Study 2 ay possibly be du to unknow motivational ariables whic might operate different ally at he beginning as compared to the end, of the cho l term. That is, studen s may be fresher has been demonstrated that only relatively s all changes in second language performance wer recorded over reasonably long periods during whic students were not receiving instruction. This in turn suggests that the foreign language teacher may not need to mount a particularly extensive programme of review for the skills measured by these tests.

Short-Term Memory: Mode of Presentation for Alphanumeric Information

Performance in a memory-span task using eight-letter sequences was explored as a function of presentation rate (.5, .75, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 sec/item) and presentation mode (visual, auditory, simultaneous visual and auditory, and mixed visual and auditory). Results indicate that performance in the mixed mode was inferior to the other three modes, but the other modes did not differ from each other. As presentation rate decreased, performance improved. These results are consistent with current theories of memory and indicate that the mode in which alphanumeric information is displayed is unimportant provided the modes are not mixed.