Ian Neath

In most areas of scientific research, there exist laws and principles that are the foundation of research and theory within that discipline. In the domain of human memory, however, there are few principles and no widely accepted laws (Roediger, 2008). One reason offered for the lack of laws and principles is that memory is divided into multiple systems, each of which has different properties and operates according to different principles. In contrast, I assess potential system-wide principles of memory that apply over different time scales, different tests, and different hypothetical underlying memory systems. For example, the relative distinctiveness principle has been shown to apply to sensory memory, short-term/working memory, long-term memory, episodic and semantic memory, and declarative and non-declarative memory. I'm currently seeking and evaluating potential new principles using a combination of behavioral and computational/simulation modeling approaches.