Forgetting in an Association Memory

Edward A. Feigenbaum, Herbert Alexander Simon

Expert InsightsPublished 1961

A discussion of two experiments with human verbal learning, and an explanation of the interference phenomena in terms of the EPAM (Elementary Perceiver and Memorizer) model. A model of an association memory, the EPAM, is a learning system, a computer simulation of human verbal learning processes. No stored information in this memory is ever physically destroyed. Yet the behavior which is normally called "forgetting" occurs because of a loss of access (temporary or permanent) to information stored in a growing net of associations. In this system, forgetting occurs as a direct consequence of normal learning processes (i.e., forgetting is the result of the interference of items later learned with items learned earlier) without the postulation of a separate mechanism.

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Feigenbaum, Edward A. and Herbert Alexander Simon, Forgetting in an Association Memory. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1961. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P2311.html.
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