A model of memory for incidental learning

Roger A. Browse; Lisa Y. Drewell

doi:10.1117/12.811707

10 February 2009 A model of memory for incidental learning

Roger A. Browse, Lisa Y. Drewell

Proceedings Volume 7240, Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XIV; 72400G (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.811707
Event: IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 2009, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

This paper describes a radial basis memory system that is used to model the performance of human participants in a task of learning to traverse mazes in a virtual environment. The memory model is a multiple-trace system, in which each event is stored as a separate memory trace. In the modeling of the maze traversal task, the events that are stored as memories are the perceptions and decisions taken at the intersections of the maze. As the virtual agent traverses the maze, it makes decisions based upon all of its memories, but those that match best to the current perceptual situation, and which were successful in the past, have the greatest influence. As the agent carries out repeated attempts to traverse the same maze, memories of successful decisions accumulate, and performance gradually improves. The system uses only three free parameters, which most importantly includes adjustments to the standard deviation of the underlying Gaussian used as the radial basis function. It is demonstrated that adjustments of these parameters can easily result in exact modeling of the average human performance in the same task, and that variation of the parameters matches the variation in human performance. We conclude that human memory interaction that does not involve conscious memorization, as in learning navigation routes, may be much more primitive and simply explained than has been previously thought.

Citation Download Citation

Roger A. Browse and Lisa Y. Drewell "A model of memory for incidental learning", Proc. SPIE 7240, Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XIV, 72400G (10 February 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.811707

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