The effectiveness of retrieval from memory
Richard M. Shiffrin, Mark Steyvers · 2000
Abstract The term ‘rational models’ has connotations almost too numerous to list, including internal consistency of a model’s assumptions, consistency of data with a model’s predictions, matching of the model’s predictions to the demands imposed by the environment and its probabilistic structure and pay-offs, and logical consistency of a model’s decision structure. In this chapter we focus on ‘optimality’, in particular, optimality of retrieval from memory. In an absolute sense, we ask whether retrieval is as optimal, efficient, and effective as possible, given the way in which information has been stored in memory. This question may not be well defined or easy to answer. In a relative sense, we ask whether retrieval in different tasks and of different types of information operates with different levels of optimality, effectiveness, and efficiency. Such questions are of course highly model dependent, but by keeping the assumptions as simple as possible, it may be possible to obtain answers that generalize to quite a wide range of potential models.