Principles of Memory

This is another title in the Essays in Cognitive Psychology series, written by two well-known researchers in the field of memory (Ian Neath being particularly credited). The book will bring together a critical review of recent trends and theories in memory research, and propose new models based on the authors' extensive research. Memory research in the 1990s often focused on the question of whether memory is best characterized as a set of independent systems or as a set of interrelated processes. In the proposed book, the authors provide a functional analysis of memory mechanisms which allows the specification of general principles of memory. The book argues how these principles apply to all memory, regardless of the type of information, the type of processing, the hypothetical system supporting the memory, or the time scale. The guiding view is that memory is memory regardless of the time scale and that different systems are not needed for different time scales. The book would also include acritique of both the multiple systems and the processing views, showing how each misses something fundamental about the psychology of memory. The book concludes by describing three models of memory that are based on the functional principles identified. The book promises to be academically rigorous and interesting advance in the debate over the nature of human memory, and should generate wide interest among memory researchers and cognitive psychologists in general. It may also have potential as recommended reading on some senior undergraduate courses and, more particularly, graduate courses in memory.