Further experimental tests of invariance hypotheses on learning and memory processes

Abstract

Summary. The aim of the present article is to extend the experimental tests of a model that connects various invariance hypotheses on different learning and memory processes. This model and first experimental tests were published previously in this journal by Bredenkamp and Klein (1998) . According to the model, the information processed in one learning trial is hyperbolically related to the presentation time, and the asymptote of the hyperbolic function is equivalent to the immediate memory span in bits. Four learning experiments performed under different conditions (no secondary task, Polish and Romanian as irrelevant speech, attention demanding secondary task) confirmed the prediction of a hyperbolic function. Another four experiments determined the immediate memory span under the same conditions. The immediate spans were compared to the asymptotic values of the hyperbolic curves. These comparisons confirmed the expectation that the asymptote is equivalent to the immediate span in bits. A further result concerns the relation between the amount of information and the immediate span in terms of items. The immediate span is linearly related to the reciprocal information value. This result is discussed within both the framework of Baddeley’s Working Memory Model and recent approaches by Dosher and Ma (1998) and Hulme, Newton, Cowan, Stuart, and Brown (1999) .