Imperfect Memory Research Articles

Memory and the Psychophysical Function

The form of the psychophysical function can be accounted for by assuming an imperfect memory. A theoretical exposition of the subject is presented, and three memory components are isolated experimentally. Those components are memory for (1) amplitude, (2) starting time and duration, and (3) frequency and phase. An equation is presented which leads to consistency between predictions of the signal detectability and empirical results for the form of the psychophysical function. (This work was sponsored by the U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.)

Unconscious Bias in Walking

SURELY Mr. W. G. Simpson has written from imperfect memory when he tells us in NATURE (vol. xxix. p. 356), “if the majority of people, as Mr. Darwin argues, are left-legged, they would circle to the left in a mist, as Mr. Larden says they do.” In Mr. Larden's letter (p. 262) the following passage occurs: “This theory (his own) involving as further consequences that those in whom the left leg is the strongest would circle to the right,” c again, “I myself am right-legged and in a mist I always circle to the left.” Although Mr. Simpson has misquoted Mr. Larden, he has arrived at the same conclusion that I did (see NATURE for January 31, p. 311), but gives his views in different words, namely, that “there is a bias towards the stronger limb, irrespective of length.”