Devine J V, Burke M W, Rohack J J
J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process. 1979 Oct;5(4):335-54. doi: 10.1037//0097-7403.5.4.335.
The short-term retention of nonhuman primates for a single sample or for two successively presented samples was assessed in four delayed matching-to-sample experiments with delays of .03, 4, 8, 16, and 32 sec. The single sample tasks included one (Experiment 1) or two (Experiment 4) distractor stimuli in the choice set (matching test). In the two successive samples tasks, the animals matched (reconstructed) the order of presentation of two samples with (Experiment 3) and without (Experiment 2) a distractor stimulus. Also, the possible combinations of eight stimuli (four colors and four shapes) were arranged to test the effects of sample set and choice set similarity. Taken together, analyses of the errors indicated that both sample and choice set similarity were significant sources of confusions in delayed matching. Order errors occurred independently of similarity but were a source of forgetting primarily at the longest delays (16 and 32 sec). Two exceptions to the similarity effect (second response errors in Experiment 3 and errors of an inexperienced group in Experiment 4) were observed. Possible reasons for the exceptions and several implications of these findings for theories of short-term memory are discussed.
在四个延迟匹配样本实验中，对非人类灵长类动物在0.03、4、8、16和32秒延迟条件下对单个样本或两个连续呈现样本的短期记忆进行了评估。单个样本任务在选择集（匹配测试）中包括一个（实验1）或两个（实验4）干扰刺激。在两个连续样本任务中，动物对两个样本的呈现顺序进行匹配（重构），实验3中有干扰刺激，实验2中没有干扰刺激。此外，还安排了八种刺激（四种颜色和四种形状）的可能组合，以测试样本集和选择集相似性的影响。综合来看，错误分析表明，样本集和选择集相似性都是延迟匹配中混淆的重要来源。顺序错误的发生与相似性无关，但主要在最长延迟（16秒和32秒）时是遗忘的一个来源。观察到相似性效应的两个例外情况（实验3中的第二次反应错误和实验4中一个无经验组的错误）。讨论了这些例外情况的可能原因以及这些发现对短期记忆理论的若干启示。
