INFORMATION PROCESSING SEARCH AND RETRIEVAL

Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (ADAPTED FROM THE APPLICANT'S ABSTRACT): This proposal explores several fundamental issues concerning memory storage and retrieval. The primary goal is the development of a theory capable of quantitative predictions of the major phenomena in the field and the results from proposed studies in three main research areas: 1) The representation of information in memory. Is memory storage composite, as in many neural net and connectionist models, or separate, as traditionally assumed in the investigator's theory known as SAM (or Search of Associate Memory)? How are different levels of information represented together, such as features, words and sentences? 2) The role of context in storage and retrieval. When does it change during storage, and how is it chosen at test? To what degree does context change underlie forgetting? 3) The time course of retrieval and response times. What factors affect retrieval time? What model explains the time to respond? How are response times related in recognition, cued recall, and free recall? How can accuracy and response time data be modeled together? The investigator hopes to create a general model capable of predicting such phenomena.