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Schema abstraction‖ in a multiple-trace memory model (1986)
| Venue: | Psychological Review |
| Citations: | 359 - 2 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Hintzman86schemaabstraction‖,
author = {Douglas L. Hintzman},
title = {Schema abstraction‖ in a multiple-trace memory model},
journal = {Psychological Review},
year = {1986},
pages = {411--428}
}
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Abstract
A simulation model of episodic memory, MINERVA 2, is applied to the learning of concepts, as represented bythe schema-abstraction task. The model assumes that each experience produces a separate memory trace and that knowledge of abstract oncepts i derived from the pool of episodic traces at the time of retrieval. A retrieval cue contacts all traces imultaneously, activating each according to its similarity to the cue, and the information retrieved from memory reflects the summed content of all activated traces responding in parallel. The MINERVA 2 model is able to retrieve an abstracted prototype of the category when cued with the category name and to retrieve and disambiguate a category name when cued with a category exemplar. The model successfully predicts basic findings from the schema-abstraction literature (.g., differential forgetting of proto-types and old instances, typicality, and category size effects), including some that have been cited as evidence against exemplar theories of concepts. The model is compared to other classification models, and its implications regarding the abstraction problem are discussed. How is abstract knowledge related to specific experience? In present-day terms, this question concerns the relationship be-tween episodic and generic memories. This article explores the
Keyphrases
multiple-trace memory model schema abstraction category name abstract knowledge abstracted prototype old instance schema-abstraction literature abstraction problem schema-abstraction task category exemplar retrieval cue contact category size effect abstract oncepts classification model basic finding separate memory trace differential forgetting episodic memory specific experience exemplar theory summed content episodic trace generic memory simulation model present-day term relationship be-tween episodic activated trace
