TY - JOUR
T1 - Reflections of the Environment in Memory
AU - Anderson, John R.
AU - Schooler, Lael J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Grant BNS-8705811 from the National Science Foundation and Contract N00014-90-J-1489 from the Office of Naval Research. We would like to thank Ching-Fan Sheu for his comments on this paper. The second author was supported by Training Grant 1-T32-MH19102-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
PY - 1991/11
Y1 - 1991/11
N2 - Availability of human memories for specific items shows reliable relationships to frequency, recency, and pattern of prior exposures to the item. These relationships have defied a systematic theoretical treatment. A number of environmental sources (New York Times, parental speech, electronic mail) are examined to show that the probability that a memory will be needed also shows reliable relationships to frequency, recency, and pattern of prior exposures. Moreover, the environmental relationships are the same as the memory relationships. It is argued that human memory has the form it does because it is adapted to these environmental relationships. Models for both the environment and human memory are described. Among the memory phenomena addressed are the practice function, the retention function, the effect of spacing of practice, and the relationship between degree of practice and retention.
AB - Availability of human memories for specific items shows reliable relationships to frequency, recency, and pattern of prior exposures to the item. These relationships have defied a systematic theoretical treatment. A number of environmental sources (New York Times, parental speech, electronic mail) are examined to show that the probability that a memory will be needed also shows reliable relationships to frequency, recency, and pattern of prior exposures. Moreover, the environmental relationships are the same as the memory relationships. It is argued that human memory has the form it does because it is adapted to these environmental relationships. Models for both the environment and human memory are described. Among the memory phenomena addressed are the practice function, the retention function, the effect of spacing of practice, and the relationship between degree of practice and retention.
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1991.tb00174.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1991.tb00174.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84970188424
SN - 0956-7976
VL - 2
SP - 396
EP - 408
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
IS - 6
ER -