The Process of Retrieval from Very Long-Term Memory

In this paper we argue that the protocols of subjects recalling the.names of their high school classmates, as well as an army of traditional memory phenomena, can be understood from an informationprocessing analysis which interprets re, t r i ed as a problem-solving process. This characterization of retrieval focuses on the reconstructive and recursive nature of the process of remembering. Refrieval is viewed as a process in which some information about a target item is used to construct a description of the item and this description is used in attempts to recover new fragments of information. A new description is formed and the process continues recursively. Three subprocesses are identified: FIND A CONTEXT, in which a proper environment for conducting a search is established: SEARCH, in whidr bits and pieces of information appropriate to the context are recovered until an adequate description can be formed within the search context; and VERIFY, in which recovery infonnation i s checked for consistency.