ABSTRACT
One of the fields conventionally listed in taxonomies of psychological research is "human learning and memory." This designation implies the existence of separate but related domains of inquiry-acquisition or learning on the one hand and retention or memory on the other. Since the two are invariably linked, both in theory and in experimental practice, why do the separate labels continue to be retained? The l?rimary reason is that one cannot avoid making a distinction between learning and memory on abstract theoretical grounds. The distinction has also remained pragmatically useful in the c1assification of experimental procedures and the organization of empirical findings. No operations, however, have been devised that permit fully independent measurements of the two processes . Hence, the methodologies and the explanatory concepts ofthe domains oflearning and memory have always been inextricably interwoven; they have become increasingly so in recent years. In order to focus on the problems considered in this chapter it is useful to begin with abrief discussion ofthe rationale of the distinction between learning and memory.
