ABSTRACT
A human has not only a memory but an elaborate memory system. This chapter provides a few things about this system: that it has the capability of putting new information into a memory and of retrieving information already in memory. It describes how the system puts information into memory, how it retrieves information from memory, and what happens to information resident in memory. The chapter discusses memory in terms of information, which has been loosely viewed as some kind of substance that is put into memory, retrieved from memory and lost from memory. Two major events were in large part responsible for stimulating this approach: the development of information theory and the development of computers. The chapter outlines the relevance of these two events to the information-processing approach to memory. It shows that the complicated behavior of humans may also be generated by relatively simple, understandable programs.
