A Power-Law Model of Psychological Memory Strength in Short-and Long-Term Recognition

A classic law of cognition is that forgetting curves are closely approximated by power functions. This law describes relations between different empirical dependent variables and the retention interval, and the precise form of the functional relation depends on the scale used to measure each variabl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2012-06, Vol.23 (6), p.625-634
Main Authors: Donkin, Chris, Nosofsky, Robert M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Cognitive psychology
Forgetting
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Learning. Memory
Mathematical independent variables
Memory
Memory, Long-Term
Memory, Short-Term
Modeling
Models, Psychological
Parametric models
Power
Power functions
Power laws
Psychological aspects
Psychological research
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Recognition
Recognition (Psychology)
Response time
Retention
Working memory
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Summary:A classic law of cognition is that forgetting curves are closely approximated by power functions. This law describes relations between different empirical dependent variables and the retention interval, and the precise form of the functional relation depends on the scale used to measure each variable. In the research reported here, we conducted a recognition task involving both short- and long-term probes. We discovered that formal memory-strength parameters from an exemplar-recognition model closely followed a power function of the lag between studied items and a test probe. The model accounted for rich sets of response time (RT) data at both individual-subject and individual-lag levels. Because memory strengths were derived from model fits to choices and RTs from individual trials, the psychological power law was independent of the scale used to summarize the forgetting functions. Alternative models that assumed different functional relations or posited a separate fixed-strength working memory store fared considerably worse than the power-law model did in predicting the data.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797611430961