Originally published in 1974, this volume presents empirical and theoretical investigations of the role of meaning in psychological processes. A theory is proposed for the representation of the meaning of texts, employing ordered lists of propositions. The author explores the adequacy of this representation, with respect to the demands made upon such formulations by logicians and linguists. A sufficiently large number of problems are encompassed by the propositional theory to justify its use in psychological research into memory and language comprehension. A number of different experiments are reported on a wide variety of topics, and these test central portions of this theory, and any that purports to deal with how humans represent meaning. Among the topics discussed are the role of lexical decomposition in comprehension and memory, propositions as the units of recall, and the effects of the number of propositions in a text base upon reading rate and recall. New problems are explored, such as inferential processes during reading, differences in levels of memory for text, and retrieval speed for textual information. On the other hand, a study of retrieval from semantic memory focusses on a problem of much current research. The final review chapter relates the present work to other current research in the area at the time.

Published in 1976, Language, Memory, and thought is a valuable contribution to the field of Cognitive Psychology. This book presents a theory about human cognitive functioning, a set of experiments testing that theory, and a review of some of the literature relevant to the theory. The theory is embodied in a computer simulation model called ACT.

This Handbook examines the interplay between metamemory and memory. Each contributor discusses cutting-edge theory and research that, in some way, showcases the symbiotic relationship between metamemory and memory. Together, these chapters support a central thesis, which is that a complete understanding of either metamemory or memory is not possible without understanding their mutual influence. The inspiration for this volume was the life and research of Thomas O. Nelson, whose pioneering and influential research in the fields of metamemory and memory consistently highlighted their integrated nature.

The Handbook of Research Methods in Human Memory presents a collection of chapters on methodology used by researchers in investigating human memory. Understanding the basic cognitive function of human memory is critical in a wide variety of fields, such as clinical psychology, developmental psychology, education, neuroscience, and gerontology, and studying memory has become particularly urgent in recent years due to the prominence of a number of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. However, choosing the most appropriate method of research is a daunting task for most scholars. This book explores the methods that are currently available in various areas of human memory research and serves as a reference manual to help guide readers’ own research. Each chapter is written by prominent researchers and features cutting-edge research on human memory and cognition, with topics ranging from basic memory processes to cognitive neuroscience to further applications. The focus here is not on the "what," but the "how"—how research is best conducted on human memory.

The stream of our consciousness contains an almost unceasing parade of sensation-like experiences, even in the absence of any external stimulation to produce them. We experience picture-like things, sound-like things, and more; our experiences can resemble any of our sense modalities. These experiences are what we refer to by the phrase "mental imagery." The images need not be vivid. People who doubt that they experience visual imagery are often persuaded by a simple exercise: count the windows of the house in which you live. Nearly everyone performs this task by walking around the house in imagination while counting windows, or by walking through the house counting them from the inside. The imaginary windows seem to be set in visual space. There is a temptation to point at them with an index finger while one counts, even though the images may never become vivid enough to seem like an actual visual experience. But if they seem set in visual space, if they can be pointed at, they clearly constitute a sensory-like experience in some meaningful way.

This brief edition contains two major parts. The first is the historical analysis of associationism and its countertraditions, which still provides the framework used to relate current research to an important intellectual tradition. The second part of the book reproduces the major components of the HAM theory. In our view, the major contribution of that theory was the propositional network analyses of memory and the placement of those representational assumptions into an information-processing framework. This book is smaller than the previous book on HAM thanks to a re-evaluation of certain sections which have been deleted--some due to out of date information, some because the analyses presented have been replaced by better ones. This book makes the more important points of the original HAM book available at a more economical price. - from the preface.

First published in 1979. Basic research, at its essence, is exploration of the unknown. When it is successful, isolated pieces of reality are deciphered and described. Most of the history of an empirical discipline consists of probes into this darkness-some bold, others careful and systematic. Most of these efforts are initially incorrect. At best, they are distant approximations to a reality that may not be correctly specified for centuries. How, then, can we describe the fragmented knowledge that characterizes a scientific discipline for most of its history? A dynamic field of science is held together by its paradigm. The author’s think it is essential to adequate scientific education to teach paradigms, and believe that there is an effective method. The method emphasizes the integral nature, rather than the objective correctness, of a given set of consensual commitments. They believe that paradigmatic content can be effectively combined with the technical research literature commonly presented in scientific texts. This book represents the culmination of those beliefs.

First published in 1980. This is a volume of the proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Attention and Performance held in Princeton, New Jersey, USA, from August 20th to 25th 1978.

First published in 1973. This book proposes and tests a theory about human memory, about how a person encodes, retains, and retrieves information from memory. The book is especially concerned with memory for sentential materials. We propose a theoretical framework which is adequate for describing comprehension of linguistic materials, for exhibiting the internal representation of propositional materials, for characterizing the interpretative processes which encode this information into memory and make use of it for remembering, for answering questions, recognizing instances of known categories, drawing inferences, and making deductions.