Important People: John R. Anderson and Howard Eichenbaum
Written By: Christine Cartaya
Biography:
John R. Anderson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1947. He came from a poor background, but had parents who greatly supported his dreams. Anderson attended the University of British Columbia and believed psychology was an exact science, and graduated in 1968. After his bachelors, John Anderson traveled to Stanford to work under Gordon Bower and with others such as, Richard Atkinson, Herbert Clark, and Edward Smith. After his research with these men, Anderson found his passion, developing a theory of human cognition that could be simulated by a computer. John R.
Anderson graduated from Stanford in 1972 and continued to Yale and the University of
Michigan. In 1973, John married Lynne Reder, and in 1978 they both moved to Carnegie
Mellon University, where they still reside today. John and Lynne have two sons, Jay (32) and Abe (27) (Anderson, 1995).
Anderson’s Contributions to The Topic of Memory:
At Stanford, Anderson developed the FRAN simulation of free recall and the
HAM theory of memory. The FRAN simulation of free recall dealt with conceptual organization, the free recall paradigm, and its influences (Anderson, “FRAN simulation of free recall, 315). In addition, the HAM theory of memory, also known as Human
Associative Memory (which was the first version of the ACT theory), was the first time into procedural memory was added to the declarative memory system. With further knowledge, Anderson was able to further expand on the HAM theory of memory, which is now know as the ACT theory. The ACT, the adaptive control of thought, (Medin, Ross,
Markman, 2005, 192), theory was first described in J.R. Anderson’s book, “Language,
Memory, and Thought.” This theory was developed to further explain the higher complexities of human cognition. It stated that human cognition was the result of the interaction between declarative and procedural knowledge. In 1983, his book “The
Architecture of Cognition” Anderson further explained the ACT theory and essentially created a deeper and better-developed version of his original thoughts (Anderson, 1995).
John Anderson looks at memory as a network of nodes (unit that represents a thought or idea) and links that are brought together in propositions; “the smallest unit of meaning about which one can reasonably assert truth of falsity” (Medin, Ross, Markman, 2005,
194). Lastly, The ACT uses aspects like type-token distinction, where nodes represent general concepts and the fan affect; the prediction of the ACT needs a node to reach the threshold of activation (198). In addition, Anderson is responsible for the term “rational analysis”, describing that the idea of understanding human cognition needs to be from a statistical perspective. As a result of Anderson’s efforts regarding rational analysis, others were able to collect statistical information and data for research in the field of memory and cognition. Finally, in the 1990’s, John R. Anderson transformed the ACT theory into

the ACT-R theory, which he wrote about in “Rule of the Mind” in 1993; which a new outlook of procedural memory was created and rational analysis played a large role
(Anderson, 1995).
Written By: Christine Cartaya
Biography:
Elizabeth Loftus was born in Los Angeles, California in 1944. Elizabeth Loftus’ mother died in 1959, leaving her in a single-parent household. At first, Loftus wanted to pursue a career in mathematics, however, she changed her interests while attending
UCLA. In 1968, Elizabeth Loftus married Geoffrey Loftus and attended Stanford for graduate school. During her time at Stanford she gained an interest in long-term memory
(Born, “Elizabeth Loftus”, 1997). After receiving her graduate degree, Loftus made her way to the New School for Social Research in New York and then she and her husband moved to the University of Washington. Elizabeth Loftus wanted to her work to influence society and better the people around her. As a result, she found herself face-to-face with sexual offenders and murderers, defending the lives of the innocent (Born, 1997). Sadly, despite their twenty-three years of marriage, Loftus and her husband filed for divorce in
1991. After this tragic event, Loftus continued with her passion and eventually received a
Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Academy of Forensic Psychology
(Born, 1997). Elizabeth Loftus is considered an expert in “malleability and reliability of repressed memories” (Born, 1997) and is considered a highly respected figure in cognitive psychology.
Loftus’ Contributions to the Topic of Memory:
At the University of Washington, Loftus “began her research with investigation of how the mind classifies and remembers information” (Born, 1997). Loftus tends to focus greatly in repressed sexual abuse memories that suddenly reappear. Elizabeth Loftus coined the term “memory work”, which means, “the process of retrieving the repressed memory through invasive therapeutic techniques such as regression, dream work, hypnosis, visualization, group theory, and suggestion by a therapist” (Born, 1997); Loftus questions the exactness of these memories and wonders about the resurfacing of them, as seen in her false memory phenomenon. She has written several books and articles and she is the spokesperson for the FMSF, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. In addition to her work on false memories, she also worked (alongside others), on the hierarchical model, which “assumes that a person’s relatively permanent accumulation of knowledge about the meaning of words is organized in a hierarchical network of associations”
(Medin, Ross, Marksmen, 2005, 175). Elizabeth Loftus has greatly influenced the psychological world, and her work continues to better the society around her.

References for Important People – John R. Anderson and Elizabeth Loftus
1.
Anderson, J. R. (1995, April). “John R. Anderson – biography”. Retrieved from http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/people/ja/ja_bio.html
2.
Bower, Gordon H. (1972). The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory . Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=hv98M30xeGcC&printsec=frontcover&source
=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false .
3.
Born, C. (May, 1997). “Elizabeth Loftus”. Retrieved from http://muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/loftus.htm
4.
Markman, A.B., Medin, D.L, Ross, B. H. (2005). Cognitive Psychology . Fourth
Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey. John Wiley & Sons Inc.