title: Short-term memory scanning viewed as exemplar-based categorization.
abstract: Exemplar-similarity models such as the exemplar-based random walk (EBRW) model (Nosofsky & Palmeri, 1997b) were designed to provide a formal account of multidimensional classification choice probabilities and response times (RTs). At the same time, a recurring theme has been to use exemplar models to account for old-new item recognition and to explain relations between classification and recognition. However, a major gap in research is that the models have not been tested on their ability to provide a theoretical account of RTs and other aspects of performance in the classic Sternberg (1966) short-term memory-scanning paradigm, perhaps the most venerable of all recognition-RT tasks. The present research fills that gap by demonstrating that the EBRW model accounts in natural fashion for a wide variety of phenomena involving diverse forms of short-term memory scanning. The upshot is that similar cognitive operating principles may underlie the domains of multidimensional classification and short-term old-new recognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. nosofskyindiana.edu
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Nosofsky
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Little
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Donkin
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fific
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology