A COMPUTER NETWORK MODEL OF HUMAN TRANSACTIVE MEMORY

Several of the design factors that must be considered in linking compu ters together into networks are also relevant to the ways in which ind ividual human memory systems are linked into group memory systems. The se factors include directory updating (learning who knows what in the group), information allocation (assigning memory items to group member s), and retrieval coordination (planning how to find items in a way th at takes advantage of who knows what). When these processes operate ef fectively in a group, the group's transactive memory is likely to be e ffective.