ABSTRACT
Thinking depends on memory, for if we had no memories learning would be impossible. Cognition would quite literally be reduced to knee-jerk reactions! We may complain about forgetting because we set such high standards for ourselves. Anderson (1990) used analytic techniques originally developed to evaluate information storage systems, such has libraries, to evaluate remembering. He concluded that human memory is an almost optimal solution to the problem of utilizing limited resources in order to retrieve the information we are likely to need, when we need it.
