Based on the author's important Fitts Lectures, this book details a set of psychological concepts and principles that offers a unified interpretation of a wide variety of memory, categorization, and decision-making phenomena. These phenomena are explained via two families of models established by the book: a storage-retrieval model and an adaptive network model. The book considers whether the models are competing or complementary, offering cogent and instructive arguments for both perspectives. The book's theory is then applied to two large-scale series of studies on category learning and reco ... More

Based on the author's important Fitts Lectures, this book details a set of psychological concepts and principles that offers a unified interpretation of a wide variety of memory, categorization, and decision-making phenomena. These phenomena are explained via two families of models established by the book: a storage-retrieval model and an adaptive network model. The book considers whether the models are competing or complementary, offering cogent and instructive arguments for both perspectives. The book's theory is then applied to two large-scale series of studies on category learning and recognition, providing an integrated understanding of seemingly disparate phenomena. This book is the culmination of more than ten years research in the field.