Ebbinghaus did not spend much time on developing theories about the na-
ture of memory. His primary concern was to demonstrate that human memory
is an orderly and measurable phenomenon that can be described with the same
precision as biological phenomena. Still, Ebbinghaus’s main legacy is his em-
phasis on memorization of lists of stimuli. Such an emphasis suggests that
memory’s most important function is to preserve detailed records of past
events. Psychologists continue to use experimental methodologies that require
subjects to memorize lists of stimuli, such as unrelated words or sentences.
Sometimes psychologists make use of Ebbinghaus’s relearning paradigm to test
memory; more commonly, researchers usefree recalltests (e.g., ‘‘Write down all
the words on the lists’’ ),cued recalltests (e.g., ‘‘What word was paired withduck
on the list?’’ ), orrecognitiontests (e.g., ‘‘Did the wordduckappear on the list?’’).
Another development that encouraged the use of record-keeping theories of
memory was the invention of the digital computer. Many memory theorists,
especially those enamored of the information processing approach to human
cognition, have perceived an analogy between how a computer stores infor-
mation and human memory (e.g., Anderson, 1976, 1983; Winnograd, 1976).
Computers store each piece of information by placing records of that informa-
tion into separate locations, each of which has an address. The memory system
in a computer is distinct from the central processing unit (CPU) that actually
carries out the manipulation of information. Computers retrieve information
either by scanning through the set of locations until the information is found or
by going to the address of the memory location and accessing what is stored
there. To some theorists, the computer’s memory system seems a better meta-
phor for memory than do passive systems, like libraries. The programs that in-
struct computers can manipulate and transform stored information, just as we
seem to do when we answer questions about and draw inferences from past
experiences.
Historical Support for Constructionist Theories of Memory
Although record-keeping metaphors have dominated the history of memory
research, there has been a constructionist countertradition. As Brewer (1984)
noted, a constructionist conception of memory was the prevalent continental
Figure 14.1
The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve.
Memory 315