Activation noise vs. number of chunks

[ERIK M. ALTMANN]

Is there a way to express the number of chunks in memory in terms of
activation noise in the chunk choice equation?

The question comes up if you assume no retrieval threshold -- that
memory always returns something, for example in a forced-choice task.
Error is then governed by the chunk choice equation, which has
multiple parameters.  Noise is one of them, but number of chunks is
another.  If you assume that chunks are added to memory at a fairly
constant rate and each used about the same number of times, then only
noise and chunk number are left.  I'm using noise to stand for chunk
number when the retention interval spans many hours and there would be
hundreds of thousands of chunks to compute over.  As far as I've
worked it out, linear increases in noise and chunk number both
decrease retrieval probability by negatively-accelerating amounts, but
I wonder if one actually reduces to the other in a convenient way.

Erik.

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Erik M. Altmann
Psychology 2E5
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA  22030
703-993-1326
altmann at gmu.edu
hfac.gmu.edu/~altmann
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