SAC (source of activation confusion) is a computational model of

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...

encoding and retrieval. It has been developed by

Lynne M. Reder Lynne may refer to: *Lynne (surname) *Lynne (given name) *Lynne, Florida Lynne is an unincorporated community in Marion County, in the U.S. state of Florida. It is located along Florida State Road 40 in the western edges of Ocala National Forest. ...

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. It shares many commonalities with

ACT-R ACT-R (pronounced /ˌækt ˈɑr/; short for "Adaptive Control of Thought—Rational") is a cognitive architecture mainly developed by John Robert Anderson (psychologist), John Robert Anderson and Christian Lebiere at Carnegie Mellon University. Li ...

.Ilyes le bosse

Structure

SAC specifies a memory representation consisting of a network of both semantic (concept) and perceptual nodes (such as font) and associated episodic (context) nodes. Similar to her husband's (John Anderson) model,

, the node activations are governed by a set of common computational principles such as spreading activation and the strengthening and decay of activation. However, a unique feature of the SAC model are episode nodes, which are newly formed memory traces that binds the concepts involved with the current experiential context. A recent addition to SAC are assumptions governing the probability of forming an association during encoding. These bindings are affected by working memory resources available. SAC is considered among a class of dual-process models of memory, since recognition involves two processes: a general ''familiarity'' process based on the activation of semantic (concept) nodes and a more specific ''recollection'' process based on the activation of episodic (context) nodes. This feature has allowed SAC to model a variety of memory phenomena, such as meta-cognitive (rapid) feeling of knowing judgments, remember-know judgments, the word frequency mirror effect, age-related memory loss perceptual fluency, paired associate recognition and cued recall,Buchler, N. G., Light, L., & Reder, L. M. (2008). Memory for items and associations: Distinct representations and processes in associative recognition. ''Journal of Memory and Language'', ''59'', 183-199. as well as account for implicit and explicit memory tasks without positing an unconscious memory system for priming.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 Cognitive architecture