George A. Miller's essay gives a clear account of information theory and demonstrates how the concept of limited channel capacity can be applied across sensory dimensions. Its major influence has been demonstrating that immediate memory span is relatively insensitive to the amount of information per item. (SLD)

A theory of ironic processes of mental control is proposed to account for the intentional and counterintentional effects that result from efforts at self-control of mental states. The theory holds that an attempt to control the mind introduces operating and monitoring processes that work together and separately. (SLD)

Proposes a theory of social cognition to account for the comprehension and verification of social information. The theory views comprehension as a process of constructing situation models of new information on the basis of previously formed models about its referents. The comprehension of both single statements and multiple pieces of information…

Describes a new theory of likelihood judgments based on D. L. Hintzman's (1984, 1988) MINERVA2 memory model. The model, MINERVA-DM (decision making), accounts for a wide range of likelihood-judgment phenomena. Extends the model to expert-probability judgment and shows how MINERVA-DM can account for both good and poor calibration (overconfidence)…

It is argued that the reduction of cognitive dissonance can be viewed as a constraint satisfaction problem, and a computational model of the process of consonance seeking is proposed. Simulations from this model matched psychological findings from the insufficient justification and free-choice paradigms of cognitive dissonance theory. (SLD)

P. A. van der Helm and E. L. J. Leeuwenberg (1996; see record 1996-01780-002) outlined a holographic account of figural goodness of a perceptual stimulus. The theory is mathematically precise and can be applied to a broad spectrum of empirical data. The authors argue, however, that the account is inadequate on both theoretical and empirical…

This paper presents a theoretical account of certain aspects of sentence comprehension, particulary the processes involved in deciding if a sentence is true or false. (Editor)

Recent revisions of cognitive dissonance theory no longer encompass some of the important examples, data, and hypotheses that were part of Festinger's (1957) original statement. These changes are so substantial as to prompt the observation that the evolved theory might be identified as a different theory. (Editor/RK)

Judgments under uncertainty are often mediated by intuitive heuristics that are not bound by the conjunction rule of probability. Representativeness and availability heuristics can make a conjunction appear more probable than one of its constituents. Alternative interpretations of this conjunction fallacy are discussed and attempts to combat it…

A theory of timing is proposed, based on the observation that signals of reinforcement elicit adjunctive behaviors. Transitions between these behaviors are described as a Poisson process. These behaviors may come to serve as the basis for conditional discriminations of the passage of time. (SLD)

A choice behavior theory is derived from scalar expectancy theory, concentrating on variable and fixed delays to reward. Theory and data support the view that subjects remember a range of delays to reward associated with response alternatives, choosing the response with the minimum delay of reward. (SLD)

A model of interference and forgetting based on the search of associative memory (SAM) theory is presented. The SAM theory describes retrieval processes in long-term memory. A model of contextual fluctuation processes is incorporated to provide a time-dependent variable to handle time-based interference phenomena. (SLD)

It is proposed that attributes of automatization depend on the strength of a processing pathway, and that strength increases with training. With the Stroop effect as an example, automatic processes are shown through simulation to be continuous and to emerge gradually with practice. (SLD)

Many of the puzzles of absolute judgment raised by George A. Miller in 1956 remain puzzles today. Literature directed toward capacity limitations in absolute judgment tasks and in short-term memory is reviewed, and some models that attempt to elucidate the phenomena are discussed. (SLD)