Technical Report #213

Dissociations Between Categorization and Recognition in Amnesiacs and Normals: An Exemplar-Based Interpretataion

Robert M. Nosofsky & Safa Zaki

Abstract

In recent work, the finding of dissociations between categorization and recognition in amnesiacs and normals has been taken as evidence of multiple memory systems mediating these tasks (Knowlton & Squire, 1993; Knowlton, Mangels, & Squire, 1996). The present research provides support for the alternative idea that these dissociations can be interpreted in terms of a single-system exemplar-memory model that makes allowance for parameter differences across groups. In one experiment, a parameter change in memory sensitivity was induced by testing classification and recognition at varying delays; the results closely matched the ones observed by Knowlton and Squire (1993) for normals and amnesiacs. The exemplar model also yielded good quantitative predictions of the categorization-recognition dissociation. A second analysis demonstrated that dissociations between early versus late probabilistic classification learning and memory sensitivity were also predicted by the single-system exemplar model. Limitations of the exemplar interpretation and future research directions were also discussed.