Testing system-wide principles of memory

测试系统范围内的内存原理

• 批准号: 341670-2013
• 负责人: Neath, Ian
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: Memorial University of Newfoundland
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=549446
• 关键词: Testing; system; wide; principles; memory

In most areas of scientific inquiry, there are laws and principles that are the foundation of research and theory within that domain. In the study of human memory, however, there are no laws and few widely-accepted principles. One reason offered for the lack of laws and principles is that memory is not a unitary system. Because each memory system operates according to different rules, discovering general laws or principles of memory is not possible. Recently, my colleagues and I argued that principles of memory do exist and we described seven principles that apply regardless of the underlying hypothetical memory system. The objective of the proposed research program is to evaluate novel predictions derived from the general principles and to generate new principles. Three areas will be examined in detail. (1) In most areas of memory, distinctive items (i.e., a red word in a list of black words) are remembered better than non-distinct items. One problem for a principle based on distinctiveness is that this effect is not reliably observed when tests tap implicit memory. (2) Researchers have identified several 'signature' results that indicate that a person is utilizing short-term memory on a particular task. One key finding compares memory in a quiet control condition to one in which people engage in concurrent articulation (saying some irrelevant items, such as the numbers 1-5, out loud, over and over). The standard view argues that concurrent articulation selectively affects the articulatory control process of working memory. In contrast, the proposed research will investigate whether tasks with no phonological or articulatory component have similar effects, thereby testing a proposed new principle of secondary task effects. (3) Although most memory research uses verbal stimuli, there is a robust literature on non-verbal and especially procedural memory (i.e., knowing "how" as opposed to knowing "that"). The paradigms used to study procedural memory, however, are not conducive to assessing whether the proposed principles apply. The third line of research will develop paradigms for studying principles in tasks thought to tap procedural memory, and will then directly compare the applicability of each principle to procedural and declarative memory tasks.

在科学研究的大多数领域，都有一些规律和原则是该领域研究和理论的基础。然而，在人类记忆的研究中，没有定律，也没有什么被广泛接受的原则。缺乏规律和原则的一个原因是记忆不是一个单一的系统。因为每个记忆系统都根据不同的规则运行，所以发现记忆的一般规律或原则是不可能的。最近，我和我的同事认为记忆的原则确实存在，我们描述了七个原则，无论潜在的假设记忆系统如何。拟议的研究计划的目的是评估新的预测来自一般原则，并产生新的原则。将详细审查三个领域。(1)在记忆的大多数区域，独特的项目（即，黑字列表中的红字）比不明显的项目记忆得更好。基于独特性原则的一个问题是，当测试挖掘内隐记忆时，这种效应并不能可靠地观察到。(2)研究人员已经确定了几个“签名”结果，表明一个人正在利用短期记忆来完成特定任务。一个关键的发现是将安静控制条件下的记忆与同时发音的记忆进行了比较（一遍又一遍地大声说出一些不相关的项目，比如数字1-5）。标准观点认为，同时构音选择性地影响工作记忆的构音控制过程。相反，拟议的研究将调查是否没有语音或发音成分的任务有类似的效果，从而测试一个新的原则，提出的次要任务的影响。(3)虽然大多数记忆研究使用言语刺激，但有大量关于非言语记忆，特别是程序记忆的文献（即，知道“如何”而不是知道“那个”）。然而，用于研究程序记忆的范式不利于评估所提出的原则是否适用。第三条研究路线将开发用于研究被认为是挖掘程序性记忆的任务中的原则的范式，然后将直接比较每个原则对程序性和陈述性记忆任务的适用性。