Verbal learning and memory: does the modal model still work?

This chapter focuses on recent research concerning verbal learning and memory. A prominent guiding framework for research on this topic over the past three decades has been the modal model of memory, which postulates distinct sensory, primary, and secondary memory stores. Although this model continues to be popular, it has fostered much debate concerning its validity and specifically the need for its three separate memory stores. The chapter reviews research supporting and research contradicting the modal model, as well as alternative modern frameworks. Extensions of the modal model are discussed, including the search of associative memory model, the perturbation model, precategorical acoustic store, and permastore. Alternative approaches are discussed including working memory, conceptual short-term memory, long-term working memory, short-term activation and attention, processing streams, the feature model, distinctiveness, and procedural reinstatement.

[1]  Nelson Cowan,et al.  Verbal memory span and the timing of spoken recall , 1992 .

[2]  J. Wixted,et al.  On the Form of Forgetting , 1991 .

[3]  H. McGurk,et al.  Hearing lips and seeing voices , 1976, Nature.

[4]  Danielle S. McNamara,et al.  A Procedural Explanation of the Generation Effect: The Use of an Operand Retrieval Strategy for Multiplication and Addition Problems , 1995 .

[5]  A. Baddeley,et al.  When long-term learning depends on short-term storage , 1988 .

[6]  R. G. Crowder.  The purity of auditory memory. , 1983, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[7]  E. Klima,et al.  Nonauditory suffix effects in congenitally deaf signers of American Sign Language. , 1981, Journal of experimental psychology. Human learning and memory.

[8]  L. E. Bourne,et al.  On the cognitive structure of basic arithmetic skills: Operation, order, and symbol transfer effects. , 1994 .

[9]  Alice F. Healy,et al.  The Long-Term Retention of Training and Instruction , 1996 .

[10]  G. J. Johnson.  A distinctiveness model of serial learning , 1991 .

[11]  A. Healy,et al.  Effects of repetition on short-term retention of order information. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[12]  R M Shiffrin,et al.  Word repetitions in sentence recognition , 1991, Memory & cognition.

[13]  C. Penney.  Modality effects and the structure of short-term verbal memory , 1989, Memory & cognition.

[14]  W. James,et al.  The Principles of Psychology. , 1983 .

[15]  Tim Shallice,et al.  Neuropsychological impairments of short-term memory , 1992 .

[16]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Long-term working memory. , 1995, Psychological review.

[17]  John Brown.  Some Tests of the Decay Theory of Immediate Memory , 1958 .

[18]  R. Engle,et al.  Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: a test of four hypotheses. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[19]  Douglas L. Hintzman,et al.  Item effects in recognition and fragment completion: Contingency relations vary for different subsets of words. , 1990 .

[20]  Richard M. Shiffrin,et al.  Short-term memory: A brief commentary , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[21]  Harvey G. Shulman,et al.  Similarity effects in short-term memory. , 1971 .

[22]  A. Glenberg,et al.  Modality effects in the coding and reproduction of rhythms. , 1989, Memory & cognition.

[23]  R. Conrad,et al.  Interference or decay over short retention intervals , 1967 .

[24]  Richard C. Atkinson,et al.  Human Memory: A Proposed System and its Control Processes , 1968, Psychology of Learning and Motivation.

[25]  Jeroen G. W. Raaijmakers,et al.  The story of the two-store model of memory: past criticisms, current status, and future directions , 1993 .

[26]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Phonological short-term memory and foreign-language vocabulary learning☆ , 1991 .

[27]  M. Glanzer,et al.  Two storage mechanisms in free recall , 1966 .

[28]  Robert L. Greene,et al.  Sources of recency effects in free recall. , 1986 .

[29]  Danielle S. McNamara,et al.  A Generation Advantage for Multiplication Skill and Nonword Vocabulary Acquisition. , 1998 .

[30]  A D Baddeley,et al.  Short-term Memory for Word Sequences as a Function of Acoustic, Semantic and Formal Similarity , 1966, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[31]  A. Glenberg.  Temporal context and recency. , 1987 .

[32]  M. Sebrechts,et al.  Secondary memory and very rapid forgetting , 1989, Memory & cognition.

[33]  A. Baddeley.  Human Memory: Theory and Practice, Revised Edition , 1990 .

[34]  M. Potter,et al.  Regeneration in the short-term recall of sentences , 1990 .

[35]  William K. Estes,et al.  On types of item coding and sources of recall in short-term memory. , 1991 .

[36]  R. Schweickert.  A multinomial processing tree model for degradation and redintegration in immediate recall , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[37]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Skill and Working Memory , 1982 .

[38]  Giyoo Hatano,et al.  Digit memory of grand experts in abacus-derived mental calculation , 1983, Cognition.

[39]  R. Logie.  Visuo-Spatial Processing in Working Memory , 1986, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[40]  M. Humphreys,et al.  Different Ways to Cue a Coherent Memory System: A Theory for Episodic, Semantic, and Procedural Tasks. , 1989 .

[41]  Nelson Cowan,et al.  The role of verbal output time in the effects of word length on immediate memory. , 1992 .

[42]  M. Potter,et al.  Word Perception and Misperception in Context , 1993 .

[43]  Robert G. Crowder,et al.  The sound of vowels and consonants in immediate memory , 1971 .

[44]  A. Healy,et al.  Is there really very rapid forgetting from primary memory? The role of expectancy and item importance in short-term recall , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[45]  W. Estes,et al.  Item and order information in short-term memory: Evidence for multilevel perturbation processes. , 1981 .

[46]  Alicia J. Knoedler,et al.  Distinctiveness and Serial Position Effects in Recognition and Sentence Processing , 1994 .

[47]  Clive Frankish,et al.  Perceptual organization and precategorical acoustic storage. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[48]  B. Murdock.  A Theory for the Storage and Retrieval of Item and Associative Information. , 1982 .

[49]  M. Conway,et al.  On the Very Long-Term Retention of Knowledge Acquired Through Formal Education: Twelve Years of Cognitive Psychology , 1991 .

[50]  Robert G. Crowder,et al.  Short-term memory: Where do we stand? , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[51]  M. Gernsbacher,et al.  Accessing Sentence Participants: The Advantage of First Mention. , 1988, Journal of memory and language.

[52]  M. Potter.  Very short-term conceptual memory , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[53]  Arthur M. Glenberg,et al.  Modality effects in the coding reproduction of rhythms , 1989 .

[54]  A. Baddeley.  Is Working Memory Working? The Fifteenth Bartlett Lecture , 1992 .

[55]  A. Liberman.  On Finding That Speech Is Special , 1982 .

[56]  M. Potter,et al.  Pictures in sentences: understanding without words. , 1986, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[57]  R. G. Crowder,et al.  Precategorical acoustic storage (PAS) , 1969 .

[58]  M. Potter.  Short-term conceptual memory for pictures. , 1976, Journal of experimental psychology. Human learning and memory.

[59]  John M. Gardiner,et al.  When auditory memory is not overwritten , 1979 .

[60]  M. Glanzer,et al.  Short-term storage in reading. , 1984 .

[61]  R M Shiffrin,et al.  Interference and the representation of events in memory. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[62]  A. Baddeley,et al.  The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section a Human Experimental Psychology Dementia and Working Memory Dementia and Working Memory , 2022 .

[63]  R. Campbell,et al.  The Sources of Visual Recency: Movement and Language in Serial Recall , 1983, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[64]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  A retrieval model for both recognition and recall. , 1984, Psychological review.

[65]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  List-strength effect: I. Data and discussion. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[66]  L. Squire,et al.  On the course of forgetting in very long-term memory. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[67]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Word length and the structure of short-term memory , 1975 .

[68]  R. G. Crowder,et al.  The context-dependent stimulus suffix effect , 1993 .

[69]  M. Just,et al.  From the SelectedWorks of Marcel Adam Just 1992 A capacity theory of comprehension : Individual differences in working memory , 2017 .

[70]  B. de Gelder,et al.  Memory for consonants versus vowels in heard and lipread speech , 1994 .

[71]  J. S. Nairne,et al.  Positional uncertainty in long-term memory , 1991, Memory & cognition.

[72]  Nelson Cowan,et al.  Mechanisms of Verbal Short-Term Memory , 1994 .

[73]  M. Conway,et al.  Exploring long-term modality effects: Vocalization leads to best retention , 1988, Memory & cognition.

[74]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  Search of associative memory. , 1981 .

[75]  R. Haber.  The impending demise of the icon: A critique of the concept of iconic storage in visual information processing , 1983, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[76]  B. Milner.  Amnesia following operation on the temporal lobes , 1996 .

[77]  G Mandler,et al.  The information that amnesic patients do not forget. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[78]  R. Cook,et al.  Memory processing of serial lists by pigeons, monkeys, and people. , 1985, Science.

[79]  R. G. Crowder,et al.  A serial position effect in recall of United States presidents , 1976 .

[80]  P. A. Kolers,et al.  Procedures of mind. , 1984 .

[81]  Nelson Cowan,et al.  Reconfirmation of the Short-Term Storage Concept , 1994 .

[82]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Reflections of the Environment in Memory Form of the Memory Functions , 2022 .

[83]  R. G. Crowder,et al.  Accuracy of temporal coding: Auditory-visual comparisons , 1989, Memory & cognition.

[84]  J. Raaijmakers,et al.  A model for interference and forgetting , 1988 .

[85]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  List-strength Effect: Ii. Theoretical Mechanisms , 1990 .

[86]  A. W. Melton.  Implications of short-term memory for a general theory of memory , 1963 .

[87]  Alice F. Healy,et al.  Learning and memory of knowledge and skills : durability and specificity , 1995 .

[88]  I. Neath.  Distinctiveness and serial position effects in recognition , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[89]  Nancy J. Cooke,et al.  Role of high-level knowledge in memory for chess positions , 1993 .

[90]  Learning and memory: progress and challenge , 1993 .

[91]  Evidence against a short-term-store account of long-term recency effects , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[92]  N. Cowan,et al.  Properties of memory for unattended spoken syllables. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[93]  B. Underwood,et al.  Proactive inhibition in short-term retention of single items , 1962 .

[94]  I Neath,et al.  Schedules of presentation and temporal distinctiveness in human memory. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[95]  Alan D. Baddeley,et al.  Dementia, ageing, and the structure of human memory. , 1988 .

[96]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Exploring the Articulatory Loop , 1984 .

[97]  A. Healy,et al.  Effects of cuing on short-term retention of order information. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[98]  L. R. Peterson,et al.  Short-term retention of individual verbal items. , 1959, Journal of experimental psychology.

[99]  Gordon D. A. Brown,et al.  Memory for familiar and unfamiliar words: Evidence for a long-term memory contribution to short-term memory span , 1991 .

[100]  R. Campbell,et al.  The Uses of Short-Term Memory: A Case Study , 1986, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[101]  H. P. Bahrick,et al.  Fifty years of language maintenance and language dominance in bilingual Hispanic immigrants. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[102]  J. S. Nairne.  A feature model of immediate memory , 1990, Memory & cognition.

[103]  B. Murdock,et al.  The distinctiveness of stimuli. , 1960, Psychological review.

[104]  R. Engle,et al.  Recency and suffix effects found with auditory presentation and with mouthed visual presentation: They're not the same thing , 1987 .

[105]  L. Squire,et al.  The structure and organization of memory. , 1993, Annual review of psychology.

[106]  E Tulving,et al.  Priming and human memory systems. , 1990, Science.

[107]  R. Schmidt,et al.  New Conceptualizations of Practice: Common Principles in Three Paradigms Suggest New Concepts for Training , 1992 .

[108]  P. Muter,et al.  Very rapid forgetting , 1980, Memory & cognition.

[109]  M. Glanzer,et al.  An examination of the continuous distractor task and the “long-term recency effect” , 1990, Memory & cognition.

[110]  H. P. Bahrick.  Semantic memory content in permastore: fifty years of memory for Spanish learned in school. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[111]  R G Crowder.  Mechanisms of auditory backward masking in the stimulus suffix effect. , 1978, Psychological review.

[112]  A. Baddeley,et al.  The recency effect: Implicit learning with explicit retrieval? , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[113]  I. Neath.  Contextual and distinctive processes and the serial position function. , 1993 .

[114]  D. L. Hintzman.  Twenty-five years of learning and memory: was the cognitive revolution a mistake? , 1993 .

[115]  M. McDaniel,et al.  Generation effects in free recall: further support for a three-factor theory. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[116]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Phonological memory deficits in language disordered children: Is there a causal connection? ☆ , 1990 .

[117]  W. Kintsch.  The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: a construction-integration model. , 1988, Psychological review.

[118]  A. Newell.  Unified Theories of Cognition , 1990 .

[119]  Richard M. Shiffrin,et al.  The SAM retrieval model: A retrospective and prospective , 1992 .

[120]  R. G. Crowder,et al.  The microscope metaphor in human memory. , 1991 .

[121]  H. Simon,et al.  The mind's eye in chess. , 1973 .

[122]  Alan D. Baddeley,et al.  Effects of Background Music on Phonological Short-Term Memory , 1989 .

[123]  M Glanzer,et al.  The mirror effect in recognition memory: data and theory. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[124]  Alice F. Healy,et al.  Cognitive operations and the generation effect. , 1989 .

[125]  Michael T. Turvey,et al.  Proactive Interference in Short-Term Memory as a Function of Prior-Item Retention Interval , 1970 .

[126]  B H Repp,et al.  Context independence and phonetic mediation in categorical perception. , 1982, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[127]  F. Craik,et al.  Levels of Pro-cessing: A Framework for Memory Research , 1975 .

[128]  Alan D. Baddeley,et al.  Phonological coding and short-term memory in patients without speech , 1985 .

[129]  William K. Estes,et al.  Classification and cognition , 1994 .

[130]  R. G. Crowder,et al.  Modality and suffix effects in the absence of auditory stimulation , 1984 .

[131]  J. S. Nairne,et al.  A framework for interpreting recency effects in immediate serial recall , 1988, Memory & cognition.

[132]  Donald E. Broadbent,et al.  Recency Effects in Visual Memory , 1981 .

[133]  Robert A. Bjork,et al.  Measures of Memory , 1988 .

[134]  R. Bjork,et al.  Recency-sensitive retrieval processes in long-term free recall☆ , 1974 .

[135]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  Models for recall and recognition. , 1992, Annual review of psychology.

[136]  R M Shiffrin,et al.  Recognition of multiple-item probes , 1987, Memory & cognition.

[137]  J. S. Nairne.  The Loss of Positional Certainty in Long-Term Memory , 1992 .

[138]  Mark C. Detweiler,et al.  A Connectionist/Control Architecture for Working Memory , 1988 .

[139]  N. Cowan.  Activation, attention, and short-term memory , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[140]  H. Roediger.  Implicit memory in normal human subjects , 1993 .