The Human Memory: A Multi-Modal Approach

Our memory of simple action phrases such as "comb your hair" improves by about 50 percent when we actually act out the phrase. Extensive studies on this self-performance effect, which is not explained by any of the current theories of episodic memory, led the authors of this work to develop a multi-modal approach to the understanding of memory, which not only takes account of the traditional nonverbal (visual) systems, but also includes the influence of the motor system and actions on memory. The central ideal of this model is that human information processing is to a certain extent decentralized, and that episodic memory performance depends not only on central information processing, but also on which systems are actually involved in the encoding and retrieval of the material. This work describes the practical evidence and theoretical background of this model, which not only challenges current concepts in the psychology of memory, but also has potentially important implications about how people might best learn and remember information in our increasingly "multi-dimensional" information age. This clearly-written discussion is intended for anyone involved with memory - psychologists, educators, psychophysiologists, and graduate students in these fields.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Introduction: topics, motives and goals; relations to other theories; some fundamental assumptions of the multimodal theory; this book and its organization. Part 2 The multimodal memory theory: introduction; some relationships to other memory theories; the multimodal theory - structural assumptions; the multimodal theory - processing assumptions; some predictions for recall and recognition based on the multimodal theory; preview of the subsequent chapters. Part 3 Recall and recognition of objects and scenes: introduction; word nodes and speaking/writing programmes in pictorial processing; picture nodes in pictorial processing; concepts in picture processing; the picture processing system; relational encoding and recall of objects and scenes. Part 4 Memory for simple actions: introduction; is there an effect of enactment?; picture nodes in performing actions; motor programmes in performing actions; concepts in performing actions; the system of motor programmes; relational encoding and recall of actions; memory for perceived actions. Part 5 Recall and recognition of nouns: introduction; the distinction between word nodes and concepts; word nodes and memory for nouns; concepts and memory for nouns; pictures nodes and memory for nouns; motor processes and memory for nouns; relational encoding processes in learning nouns - list structure and orienting task; visual similarity, imagery, and relational encoding processes in learning nouns. Part 6 Memory for verbs and verb-object phrases: introduction; comparison of the mental representation of verbs and nouns; item-specific information and memory for verbs and nouns; relational information and memory for verbs and nouns; recall of action phrases. Part 7 Concluding remarks and a general evaluation.