PSYCH 258

However, if each word contains at least three letters, then remembering six words means that a participant also remembers eighteen letters. Which is a more appropriate “item,” words or letters used to construct words? Miller proposed that we cope with primary memory’s limited capacity by recoding items into chunks

rehearsal loop, the set of primary memory items currently being rehearsed.

features. For example, all birds have hearts. Requiring particular features to belong to a concept is known as the classical theory of concepts.

prototype theory does not represent categories with definite features (Rosch, 1975; Rosch & Mervis, 1975). Prototype theory instead defines categories using the

A feature with high cue validity occurs more frequently in category members than does a feature with low cue validity. A prototype possesses many features with high cue validity. In prototype theory, we classify a new instance as belonging to a category if the new instance has high family resemblance to a category’s prototype.

In that task, a participant presses one of two buttons to indicate whether sentences such as “A canary is a bird” are true or false. Researchers measure response latency or reaction time

cognitive economy governs Quillian’s network. Cognitive economy minimizes duplicate features. Rather than storing the property “Has feathers” with each node for a different bird, the network stores the property once, attached to the node “Bird.

verbal learning tradition. That tradition modified behaviorist methodologies to study the learning of verbal materials (Andresen, 1991; Deese, 1965; Deese & Hulse, 1967; Hunt, 1971). Although verbal learners proposed associations between mentally represented concepts, they studied objective stimulus properties (Cramer, 1968).