Decay theory of immediate memory: From Brown (1958) to today (2014)

Abstract

This work takes a historical approach to discussing Brown's (1958) paper, “Some Tests of the Decay Theory of Immediate Memory”. This work was and continues to be extremely influential in the field of forgetting over the short term. Its primary importance is in establishing a theoretical basis to consider a process of fundamental importance: memory decay. Brown (1958) established that time-based explanations of forgetting can account for both memory capacity and forgetting of information over short periods of time. We discuss this view both in the context of the intellectual climate at the time of the paper's publication and in the context of the modern intellectual climate. The overarching theme we observe is that decay is as controversial now as it was in the 1950s and 1960s.

Keywords:

• Short-term memory
• Decay
• Brown (1958)
• Working memory
• Forgetting
• Time

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by NICHD Grant #2R01HD021338 to Nelson Cowan and by Swiss National Science Foundation Grant # PA00P1_139604 to Evie Vergauwe. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.