Individual Differences in Learning and Memory: A Unitary Information Processing Approach

Recent research in the area of individual differences in learning and memory is reviewed from a cognitive perspective. Using the two-state model of memory as a framework, individual variations in attentional, short-term store, and long-term store processes are discussed. The focus is on using individual differences to evaluate nomothetic cognitive models, as well as on using cognitive models in guiding research on individual differences. Both within-individual and betweenindividual differences in basic processes are examined. In so doing, the importance of strategy choice is stressed using the concept of cognitive flexibility. Several promising directions, both methodologicat and theoretical, are noted and the value of using specific information processing models in the study of individual differences is emphasized.