Lifespan Changes of Hypermnesia and forgetting

健忘症是指在不重新学习的情况下，在连续的测试中有所改善。本研究的目的在于阐明健忘与失忆的成因，并从寿命的角度探讨健忘与失忆的关系。我们做了五项研究。第一项研究从理论观点上回顾了许多关于健忘的论文，并提出了一种涉及意识-无意识问题的新方法。根据这一建议，第二项研究比较了三种语言记忆任务：识别、词干回忆和自由回忆，使用了一个需要记住/知道判断的重复测试程序。虽然没有发现过度记忆症，但在连续的测试中，记忆判断有减少而认知判断有增加的趋势。第三项研究包括三个实验，对意象假设、替代检索路径假设和意义添加过程假设进行理论检验。这项研究表明，假设取决于记忆任务的条件。第四项关于寿命变化的研究表明，在年幼的儿童和老年人中没有发现过健忘，而在小学儿童和年轻人中发现过健忘。最后一项使用过程分离程序的研究提供了意识成分是高记忆症的主要原因的证据。

Hypermnesia refers to improvement across successive tests without re-study. Purposes of this study are to clarify the causes of Hypermnesia and forgetting and to find the hypermnesia and forgetting in perspective of lifespan. We have done five researches. The first research reviewed many papers on hypermnesia in terms of theoretical points and suggested a new approach concerning conscious-unconscious issues. According to the suggestion, the second research compared three kinds of verbal memory tasks : recognition, word-stem recall, and free recall, using a repeated testing procedure requiring remember/know judgment. Although hypermnesia was not found, there was a tendency for remember judgments to decrease and for know judgment to increase over successive tests. The third research, consisting of three experiments, was done for theoretical examinations of the imagery hypothesis, the alternative retrieval pathway hypothesis and the meaning-adding process hypothesis. This research suggested that a hypothesis depended on a condition of memory tasks. The fourth research on lifespan changes indicated that hypermnesia was not found in younger children and older adults, while it was found in elemental school children and young adults. The last research using the process dissociation procedure provided evidences of the conscious component as an main cause of hypermnesia.