Judgments of frequency and recency in a distributed memory model

TODAM is a theory of distributed associative memory based on the convolutio n-correlation formalism of A. Borsellino and T. Poggio (1973, Kybernetik. 1 22. 113-122), and TODAM2 is a revised version which includes context. auto- associations for binding, a dual basis for item information. and mediators for associative information. It can explain some complex interactions (diff erential forgetting and differential attention) between item and associativ e information. In this paper we derive the basic expressions for the memory -probe dot product for the 2 x 2 cases (item and pair study crossed with it em and pair probe), and then we apply these expressions to judgments of fre quency (JOF) and judgments of recency (JOR). We report an experiment which tests both JOF and JOR for single items with post-cuing to control for enco ding strategies and suggest an attenuation factor for repetition to improve the fits. With attenuation. TODAM2 can fit the JOR data. but the JOF Fits, while not too bad, consistently predict too much dependence between item a nd associative information. (C) 2001 Academic Press.