Interference and Information Organization in Keeping Track of Continually Changing Information

Abstract

The influences of information organization and similarity-based interference on memory for changing information were investigated in the present experiment. Participants performed a keeping-track task in which they had to remember the most recent value for each of several continually changing attributes associated with one or several objects. Recall was poor when participants kept track of the same changing attribute compared with when they kept track of different changing attributes. This pattern was observed whether many attributes were mapped to one object or a single attribute was mapped to many objects. Keeping-track performance also deteriorated as the number of information events intervening between presentation and recall increased. The results are discussed in terms of similarity-based interference. Also discussed is the notion that this dynamic task gives rise to the need to distinguish between memory capacity for static information and memory capacity for dynamically changing information.

Rational Task Analysis: A Methodology to Benchmark Bounded Rationality

“…Figure 1 illustrates the mechanics of the game. Although a limited capacity for dynamic memory updates is in line with previous research (Venturino 1997), an insufficient sensitivity to recent changes seems a serious threat to an organism's survival in dynamic environments. For example, in natural habitats, foraging animals should update their memory as food resources become depleted in one area and more prevalent in another.…”

Situation Awareness Catches On: What? So What? Now What?

“…There are several variations of this procedure, all of which have both face validity and practical utility (Endsley, 2000;Jones & Endsley, 2000). Recently, researchers have begun to investigate and compare them more thoroughly (Durso & Dattel, 2004;Venturino, 1997;Vidulich, 2000). We review this progress briefly, beginning with the first direct measure (SAGAT), the concerns it generated, and the research it spawned.…”

“…Demonstration of such a limit would have practical implications for the design of SAGAT tests. In this study (Venturino, 1997), participants were asked to play the role of a fire station dispatcher. The task consisted of keeping track of the current values of attributes for one or more fire engines.…”

Near-term memory in programming: a simulation-based analysis

“…The construct of near-term memory combines the analytical goals of long-term working memory (Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995;Ericsson & Delaney, 1999) and other non-computational approaches to studying real-world memory (Yntema, 1963;Neisser, 1976;Venturino, 1997) with the methodological and theoretical leverage of cognitive simulation. The moniker &&near-term'' derives from the structure of the information stored, which combines attributes of short-and long-term memory.…”