This project is concerned with memory processes in primates. The major immediate objective is to further develop and test a specific theory of the role of coding processes and contextual stimuli in the storage and retrieval of information. Specific experimental focus will be on: 1) experiments in a short-term memory paradigm designed to elucidate relationships between short-term forgetting, coding processes, and the transfer of information to long-term memory; 2) studies of changes in forgetting as a function of stages in learning efficiency; 3) investigations attempting to pin down whether selective coding takes place at a perceptual level, is a property of short-term memory, or whether selectivity is reflected primarily in long-term memory. A distinctive strategy in this work involves attempting to derive predictions characterizing a general class of models in a set of situations and then trying to apply the processes (e.g., the role of contextual cues in retrieval) elucidated by the more promising models to performance in a variety of learning and memory test situations. The overall aim of the project is to provide a general theory of memory in nonverbal primates. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Medin, D.L. Theories of discrimination learning and learning set. In W.K. Ested (ED.), Handbook of Learning and Cognitive Processes. Vol. 3. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1976, in press. Medin, D.L. Animal models and memory models. In D.L. Medin, W.A. Roberts, & R.T. Davis (Eds.), Processes of Animal Memory. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1976, in press.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter