Long-term memory search: An intersecting activation process

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Abstract

Subjects memorized subject-verb-object propositions and then judged whether verb-object probes appeared in the same proposition. Propositions either were connected via a common subject or were unconnected. Number of propositions associated with particular verbs and objects (fan) was also manipulated. Judgments were made under accuracy or speed emphasis. Reaction times and error rates were directly related to fan. Connectedness significantly increased reaction times and error rates for negative judgments. The data are consistent with a model which assumes that activation spreads from probe concepts in parallel through the propositional network, at a rate which varies inversely with the number of paths it must follow. When two sources of activation intersect, a positive response is generated. If no intersection is detected within some period of time, a negative response is initiated. A guessing model for errors was shown to account satisfactorily for all relationships between reaction times and errors in the data, including speed-accuracy trade-off effects, while assuming that memory search processes remain constant.

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This research was supported in part by NSF Grant No. GB-40298 to J. Anderson and in part by the Office of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, under Order No. 1949, and was monitored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Contract No. F 44620-72-C-0019 to the Human Performance Center.

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