Showing papers by "Colleen M. Seifert published in 1991"

Functionality in Analogical Transfer: A Hard Match is Good to Find

Abstract: This article is concerned with the study of analogy and memory as viewed from the perspectives of both artificial intelligence (AI) and psychology. Its aim is to combine what seem to be two distinct and conflicting approaches to memory–the functional approach of AI and the empirical approach of psychology–and propose a unified view that does not compromise the nature of either field yet resolves the existing conflicts between them. To do this we propose a shift away from the narrow view of analogical reminding as an isolated memory behavior and toward a more general view of memory as a process that serves the needs of planning, problem solving, and understanding. This shift involves changes to both the functional arguments that have arisen in AI and a reexamination of the empirical evidence that has been presented in psychology.

Memory for incomplete tasks: A re-examination of the Zeigarnik effect

Abstract: An important feature of human memory is the ability to retrieve previously unsolved problems, particularly when circumstances are more favorable to their solution. Zeigarnik (1927) has been widely cited for the finding that interrupted tasks are better remembered than completed ones; however, frequent replications and non-replications have been explained in terms of social psychological variables (Prentice, 1944). The present study examines differences in memory for tasks based on completion status by appealing to cognitive variables such as the nature of interruption, time spent during processing, and set size. In one experiment using word problems, subjects were interrupted on half of the problems after a short interval of active problem solving, and completed tasks were in fact better remembered than interrupted ones. However, less processing time was necessarily spent on problems that were interrupted. A second experiment held time constant, allowing subjects to abandon tasks they could not complete. In this experiment, the opposite result occurred, replicating Zeigarnik and showing better access to unsolved problems in free recall. However, enhanced memorability in this study may have resulted from a subject-generated impasse in problem solving rather than "interruption" per se. This successful replication also included set size differences in favor of incomplete problems. Under these conditions, the status of completion can serve as a useful index to past problem situations. These experiments are successful in identifying *This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research under Contracts N00014-88-0295 and N0014-91-1128. Gretchen Dettloff and Michelle Berris provided valuable assistance with the first experiment. cognitive variables that explain when one can suspend effort on a failed problem, and recall it at a later time.