Memory: Systems, Process, or Function?

The Oxford Debates in Psychology series aims to provide students and researchers with stimulating, self-contained, and balanced summaries of the various theoretical and empirical positions that shape the most controversial and contested areas of psychology research today. Memory: Systems, Process, or Function? presents a a debate about the cognitive architecture of the human long-term memory system. Leading researchers and theorists consider the central theoretical question of how memory can best be conceptualized. In particular, is long-term memory best regarded as comprising multiple independent systems, as a processing framework, tapped via different levels of processing, or as a complex function which can be used in a flexible and task-appropriate manner? The authors of each chapter present their own answers to this and related research questions. The book concludes with an integrated synopsis and appraisal of the different facets of this fascinating debate.