Human Memory

With an emphasis on theory and models as well as on research, this is an exploration of accumulated knowledge in which the author seeks to maintain a balance between historically significant findings and current, state-of-the art research. He illustrates the process of designing and conducting diagnostic research, and in the process presents an appreciation of experimental design. The various theories of memory are introduced, with an examination of how each has been developed and evaluated.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: introduction to human memory; memory metaphors; memory methodology; memory terminology. Part 1 Historical overview: a short history; Egypt, Greece and Rome; British empiricism and continental nativism; scientific psychology; Hermann Ebbinghaus; associationist theories of memory; connectionist networks; Part 2 Sensory memory: iconic memory; echoic memory; odour memory. Part 3 The modal model: primary memory; Broadbent's model; the Brown-Peterson paradigm; Waugh and Norman's model; Atkinson and Shiffrin's dual-store model; the serial-position curve and the modal model; problems with the modal model; additional problems with the modal model. Part 4 Current perspectives on immediate memory: working memory; critique of working memory; immediate memory as activation; the feature model; critique of the feature model; summary of current immediate memory theories. Part 5 Perspectives on processing: levels of processing; organization and distinctiveness; the encoding specificity principle; context and memory; the processing dissociation framework; what is encoded? Part 6 Principles of forgetting: consolidation theory; interference theory; decay versus interference; relative distinctiveness; forgetting as discrimination. Part 7 Implicit-memory and multiple-memory systems: implicit memory; indirect tests of implicit memory; implicit learning; experimental dissociations; the activation view; multiple-memory systems; transfer appropriate processing; the bias view; comparing bias, TAP, and the multiple-systems views. Part 8 Memory, brain and amnesia: the neuron; neural circuits; the brain; methods of investigation; localized versus distributed storage; amnesia; HM - a case study; theoretical accounts of amnesia; amnesia and implicit memory; where is memory? Part 9 Recognition: signal-detection theory; single-process models of recognition; generate-recognize models; beyond simple generate-recognize; remember versus know; the mirror effect; face recognition. Part 10 Global-memory models: SAM; MINERVA 2; TODAM; connectionist models; summary of global-memory models. Part 11 Knowledge: propositions and concepts; Collins and Quillian's hierarchical model; the feature-overlap model; Collins and Loftus's spreading-activation model; knowing that you don't know; priming; alternatives to spreading activation; comparing spreading-activation and compound-cue models; how is generic memory organized?; capacity and acquisition. Part 12 Imagery: analog versus propositional representations; the dual-task method; Paivio's dual-coding theory; mental rotation; distinguishing propositional from analog; arguments against imagery; imagery and perception; real versus imagined events; eidetic imagery; other forms of imagery. Part 13 Memory for when: data to be accounted for; models that don't work.

Review :
" it is comprehensive, well written. The bottom line is: if I am offering a course emphasizing memory, there is no better book currently available."