PROTOTYPE FORMATION IN VERY SHORT-TERM-MEMORY

Following high-speed presentation of stimuli, subjects falsely recogni zed prototype numbers and words as being among the set of original sti muli. The results suggest high-speed abstraction of information by sub jects during or shortly after high-speed perception. This abstraction of a class of information may leave a memory trace that is a more memo rable representation of events (as measured by recognition techniques) than are the perceived stimuli. These results suggest that very short -term processing of information is more complicated than simple sequen tial dualistic models of memory assume.