Knowledge And Memory

Narrative forms of mental representation and their influence on comprehension, communication and judgment, have rapidly become one of the main foci of research and theory in not only psychology but also other disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, and anthropology. No one has been more responsible for the awakening of interest in this area than Roger Schank and Bob Abelson. In their target article, they argue that narrative forms of mental representation, or "stories," are the basic ingredients of social knowledge that play a fundamental role in the comprehension of information conveyed in a social context, the storage of this information in memory, and the later communication of it to others. After explicating the cognitive processes that underlie the construction of narratives and their use in comprehension, memory and communication, the chapter authors consider the influence of stories on a number of more specific phenomena, including political judgment, marital relations and memory distortions that underlie errors in eyewitness testimony. The provocativeness of the target chapter is matched by that of the companion articles, each of which not only provides an important commentary on Schank and Abelson's conceptualization, but also makes an important contribution to knowledge in its own right. The diversity of perspectives reflected in these articles, whose authors include researchers in linguistics, memory and comprehension, social inference, cognitive development, social judgment, close relationships, and social ecology, testifies to the breadth of theoretical and empirical issues to which the target chapter is potentially relevant. This volume is a timely and important contribution to research and theory not only in social cognition but in many other areas as well.

By analyzing the results of experiments that use a wide variety of training tasks including those that were predominantly perceptual, cognitive, or motoric, this volume answers such questions as: Why do some people forget certain skills faster than others? What kind of training helps people retain new skills longer? Inspired by the work of Harry Bahrick and the concept of "permastore," the contributors explore the Stroop effect, mental calculation, vocabulary retention, contextual interference effects, autobiographical memory, and target detection. They also summarize an investigation on specificity and transfer in choice reaction time tasks. In each chapter, the authors explore how the degree to which reinstatement of training procedures during retention and transfer tests accounts for both durability and specificity of training. Researchers and administrators in education and training will find important implications in this book for enhancing the retention of knowledge of skills. "You have to read this book. Anyone interested in training will want to read it. This book provides the theoretical bases of the acquisition of durable skills for the next decade. It advances and demonstrates a new principle of skill learning that will prove to be as important as the encoding specificity principle and its corollary, the principle of transfer appropriate processing. This new principle is that highly practiced skill learning will be durable when the retention test embodies the procedures employed during acquisition. This principle, and the other important findings reported in this text, will have a great impact on the evolution of memory theory and on the wide range of applications." --Douglas Hermann, University of Maryland

The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."

Narrative forms of mental representation and their influence on comprehension, communication and judgment, have rapidly become one of the main foci of research and theory in not only psychology but also other disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, and anthropology. No one has been more responsible for the awakening of interest in this area than Roger Schank and Bob Abelson. In their target article, they argue that narrative forms of mental representation, or "stories," are the basic ingredients of social knowledge that play a fundamental role in the comprehension of information conveyed in a social context, the storage of this information in memory, and the later communication of it to others. After explicating the cognitive processes that underlie the construction of narratives and their use in comprehension, memory and communication, the chapter authors consider the influence of stories on a number of more specific phenomena, including political judgment, marital relations and memory distortions that underlie errors in eyewitness testimony. The provocativeness of the target chapter is matched by that of the companion articles, each of which not only provides an important commentary on Schank and Abelson's conceptualization, but also makes an important contribution to knowledge in its own right. The diversity of perspectives reflected in these articles, whose authors include researchers in linguistics, memory and comprehension, social inference, cognitive development, social judgment, close relationships, and social ecology, testifies to the breadth of theoretical and empirical issues to which the target chapter is potentially relevant. This volume is a timely and important contribution to research and theory not only in social cognition but in many other areas as well.

This volume contains the Proceedings of an International Conference on Intelligence and Learning held at York University, England, on July 16-20, 1979. The conference was made possible with the support and assistance of the following agencies: NAT 0 Scientific Division, specifically the Human Factors panel, was the major sponsor of the conference. Special thanks are due to Dr. B. A. Bayraktar, who helped organize the conference. Special appreciation is also expressed for the support of the University of York where the conference was held, the University of Alberta, the University of California, Los Angeles, the Medical Research Council, especially its Developmental Psychology Research U nit in London, and the British Council. The conference was jointly directed by J. P. Das and N. 0' Connor. The directors appreciate the assistance in administrative matters of Patricia Chobater and Emma Collins of the University of Alberta. The Editors of the Proceedings acknowledge and appreciate the following individuals who assisted in the production of the volume at the University of California, Los Angeles: Francine Gray, Janet Koblen and Richard Russell. Special thanks go to Keith Felton, who prepared the final manuscript, and Carol Saro, who assisted the editors and prepared the indexes. Morton P. Friedman J. P. Das Neil O'Connor CONTENTS Section INTRODUCTION 1.

"An ambitious exposition of the topic of memory and the transmission of knowledge in early modern Spain."--

Shows how to explore the company's intangible asset, identify knowledge within the organization culture and look towards knowledge sharing.

Drawing on current research in psychology, a new philosophical account of remembering as imagining the past. In this book, Kourken Michaelian builds on research in the psychology of memory to develop an innovative philosophical account of the nature of remembering and memory knowledge. Current philosophical approaches to memory rest on assumptions that are incompatible with the rich body of theory and data coming from psychology. Michaelian argues that abandoning those assumptions will result in a radically new philosophical understanding of memory. His novel, integrated account of episodic memory, memory knowledge, and their evolution makes a significant step in that direction. Michaelian situates episodic memory as a form of mental time travel and outlines a naturalistic framework for understanding it. Drawing on research in constructive memory, he develops an innovative simulation theory of memory; finding no intrinsic difference between remembering and imagining, he argues that to remember is to imagine the past. He investigates the reliability of simulational memory, focusing on the adaptivity of the constructive processes involved in remembering and the role of metacognitive monitoring; and he outlines an account of the evolution of episodic memory, distinguishing it from the forms of episodic-like memory demonstrated in animals. Memory research has become increasingly interdisciplinary. Michaelian's account, built systematically on the findings of empirical research, not only draws out the implications of these findings for philosophical theories of remembering but also offers psychologists a framework for making sense of provocative experimental results on mental time travel.