Memory Study
The study of human memory and in particular
the attempts to distinguish between
different types of memory have benn
investigated for the last century.
Philosophy, psychiatry and psychologh
have all contributed to this study.
Korsakoff, Freud and Ebbinghaus are
among the early contributers. Although their
observations were not always
methodological as strict as with current research
they did play a vital role.
One critisim of the early work was that there were
few attempts to develope
theroetical accounts of the dissociations that they
observed (Schacter,
1989). This is of great importance to the study of implicit
memory. One of
the earliest uses of 'implicit' and 'explicit' memory
distinctions in
research was by Wiliam McDougall (Outline of psychology, 1924).
This
distinction defined 'explicit' memory as involving conscious recollection
of
a past event and 'implicit' memory as involving a change in behaviour that
is
attriduted to a recent event but contains no conscious recollection or
explicit
reference. (Schacter, 1989). Much of the controvacy that surrounds
implicit
memory study centeres arround its definition. Whether it defines the
pretest
situation or a theoritical construct of the underlying memory
process. The main
argument is that if similiar items must share common
features if they are to
belong to the same catagory of test or process. "
Some ttheorists, for
example, have argued that different manifestations of
memory are attributable to
the operation of the distinct memory systems(e.g.
Schacter 1989; Squire 1992;
Tulving 1993; Tulving and Schacter 1990).
Others argue that these different
manifestations are consistent with a
process viewpoint (e.g. Jacoby et al.
1989a; Kolers and Roediger 1984;
Roediger 1990; Roediger et al 1989)." From
Richardson-Klavehn (1996). To
explicate the positions, a review of the
experimental evidence is necessary.
Recently five main areas have informed
research into implicit memory,
Schacter (1989).These are savings during
learning, effects of subliminally
encoded stimuli, learning and conditioning
without awareness, repetition
priming and preserved learning in amnesic
patients. These are reviewed in
turn. Savings are the ability to relearn
previously learned material in the
absence of any knowledge of the previous
learning situation. Although there
is an influence of the previous learning
situation on proformance. The most
conclusive evidence for this comes from
Nelson (1978), who has shown
savings for items that are neither recalled nor
recognised. Studies have
demonstrated implicit memory for subliminal or briefly
exposed stimuli under
conditions in which subjects had no explicit memory. An
auditory divided
attention task in which homophones were presented on the
unattended channel
together with word intended to bias the low frequency
interpretation of the
homophone (e.g. taxi - FARE ), Eich (1984). Lewicki (1985)
found that after
exposure to adjective -noun pairs, subjects tended to choose
the adjective
that they had been exposed to when they were asked about the
noun.
Schacter (1989). Learning without awarness has been shown it rule
learning
studies. Subjects were shown letter strings from an artifical
grammer and were
able to identify grammatically correct strings even though
they were not
conscious of the propper rules, Reber (1976) called this
implicit learning.
Repetition Priming effects have been characterised by
lexical decision, woed
identification and word stem of fragment completion
tasks. This area derives
from two distinct and at times The study of human
memory and in particular the
attempts to distinguish between different types
of memory have benn investigated
for the last century. Philosophy, psychiatry
and psychologh have all contributed
to this study. Korsakoff, Freud and
Ebbinghaus are among the early contributers.
Although their observations
were not always methodological as strict as with
current research they did
play a vital role. One critisim of the early work was
that there were few
attempts to develope theroetical accounts of the
dissociations that they
observed (Schacter, 1989). This is of great importance
to the study of
implicit memory. One of the earliest uses of 'implicit' and'explicit' memory
distinctions in research was by Wiliam McDougall (Outline of
psychology,
1924). This distinction defined 'explicit' memory as involving
conscious
recollection of a past event and 'implicit' memory as involving a
change in
behaviour that is attriduted to a recent event but contains no
conscious
recollection or explicit reference. (Schacter, 1989). Much of the
controvacy
that surrounds implicit memory study centeres arround its
definition.
Whether it defines the pretest situation or a theoritical
construct of the
underlying memory process. The main argument is that if
similiar items must
share common features if they are to belong to the same
catagory of test or
process. " Some ttheorists, for example, have argued that
different
manifestations of memory are attributable to the operation of the
distinct
memory systems(e.g. Schacter 1989; Squire 1992; Tulving 1993;
Tulving and
Schacter 1990). Others argue that these different
manifestations are consistent
with a process viewpoint (e.g. Jacoby et al.
1989a; Kolers and Roediger 1984;
Roediger 1990; Roediger et al 1989)."
From Richardson-Klavehn (1996). To
explicate the positions, a review of the
experimental evidence is necessary.
Recently five main areas have
informed research into implicit memory, Schacter
(1989).These are savings
during learning, effects of subliminally encoded
stimuli, learning and
conditioning without awareness, repetition priming and
preserved learning in
amnesic patients. These are reviewed in turn. Savings are
the ability to
relearn previously learned material in the absence of any
knowledge of the
previous learning situation. Although there is an influence of
the previous
learning situation on proformance. The most conclusive evidence for
this
comes from Nelson (1978), who has shown savings for items that are
neither
recalled nor recognised. Studies have demonstrated implicit memory
for
subliminal or briefly exposed stimuli under conditions in which subjects
had no
explicit memory. An auditory divided attention task in which
homophones were
presented on the unattended channel together with word
intended to bias the low
frequency interpretation of the homophone (e.g. taxi
- FARE ), Eich (1984).
Lewicki (1985) found that after exposure to
adjective -noun pairs, subjects
tended to choose the adjective that they had
been exposed to when they were
asked about the noun. Schacter (1989).
Learning without awarness has been shown
it rule learning studies. Subjects
were shown letter strings from an artifical
grammer and were able to identify
grammatically correct strings even though they
were not conscious of the
propper rules, Reber (1976) called this implicit
learning. Repetition Priming
effects have been characterised by lexical
decision, woed identification and
word stem of fragment completion tasks. This
area derives from two distinct
and at times.