Richard Shiffrin

Shiffrin proposed a mathematical model of memory with Richard C. Atkinson in 1968 while at Stanford University. This laid out components of short and long-term memory and processes that control the operations of memory. The Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model showed the importance and possibility of modeling the control processes of cognition, and remains one of the most highly cited in the entire field of psychology.Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In K. W. Spence and J. T. Spence (Eds.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory (Vol. 2, pp. 89-195). New York: Aaademic Press.

Shiffrin graduated with a Ph.D. in Mathematical Psychology from Stanford in 1968,{{cite thesis |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/302384613/ |title=Search and retrieval processes in long-term memory |date=1968 |publisher=Stanford University |type=Ph.D. |last=Shiffrin |first=Richard Martin |via=ProQuest |url-access=subscription |oclc=654761590}} and joined Indiana University as faculty that same year, where he remains today as a distinguished Professor and Luther Dana Waterman Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. Shiffrin also directs the department's Memory and Perception Laboratory.

In the 1980s, Shiffrin's formal theory of memory took a great leap forward with the Search of Associative Memory (SAM) model. This model quantified the nature of retrieval from long-term memory and characterized recall as a memory search with cycles of sampling and recovery.Raaijmakers, J. G. W., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1980). SAM: A theory of probabilistic search of associative memory. In Bower, G. H. (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 14, 207-262. New York: Academic Press. In 1984, another quantum step forward occurred, when the theory was extended to recognition memory, in which a decision is based on summed activation of related memory traces.Gillund, G., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1984). A retrieval model for both recognition and recall. Psychological Review, 91, 1-67. It was a major accomplishment that the same retrieval activations that had been used in the recall model could be carried forward and used to predict a wide range of recognition phenomena. Another major step, In 1990, Shiffrin published two articles on the list-length effect which clearly established that experience leads to the differentiation, rather than the mere strengthening, of the representations of items in memory.Ratcliff, R., Clark, S., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1990). The list-strength effect: I. Data and discussion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 163-178.Shiffrin, R. M., Ratcliff, R., & Clark, S. (1990). The list-strength effect: II. Theoretical mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 179-195. In 1997 Shiffrin extended the SAM model with the Retrieving Effectively From Memory (REM) model.Shiffrin, R. M., & Steyvers, M. (1997). A model for recognition memory: REM: Retrieving effectively from memory. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 4 (2), 145-166.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/schunn/cogsci2002/plenary_shiffrin2.html|title=Richard M. Shiffrin|website=www.lrdc.pitt.edu}}

Shiffrin runs an Annual Summer Interdisciplinary Conference (ASIC){{cite web |url=http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/asic/ |title=ASIC 2004 |website=www.cogs.indiana.edu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040121121545/http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/asic/ |archive-date=2004-01-21}} that features talks and posters in the broad frame of Cognitive Science and related areas. Days are free for activities, and talks/posters fall in late afternoon and evening sessions, followed by dinner. The settings are in scenic and dramatic mountain venues with access to summer adventure and mountain sports such as climbing, hiking, biking, canyoning, white water rafting, and via ferrata. Attendees are welcome to bring family and friends and the conference is open to all interested parties. Invitation is not needed to attend.

• Guggenheim Fellow, 1975–76
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Fellowship, 1994–95
• Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 1995
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1996
• Fellow of the American Psychological Society, 1996
• Howard Crosby Warren Medal (Society of Experimental Psychologists), 1999
• The David E. Rumelhart Prize for Contributions to the Formal Analysis of Human Cognition, 2002
• Elected to the American Philosophical Society, 2005
• William James Fellow Award (Association for Psychological Science), 2007
• Awarded IU President's Medal for Excellence, 2014

• Short-term memory

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• Shiffrin, R.M, Murnane, K., Gronlund, S. and Roth, M.P. On Units of Storage and Retrieval. Chizuko Izawa (Ed.), Current Issues in Cognitive Processes, 1988; Erlbaum.

• [http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2233 Shiffrin's Biography on Association for Psychological Science website]
• [http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/people/homepages/shiffrin.html Shiffrin's homepage on Indiana University website]
• [http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/shiffrin/index.html Shiffrin's personal homepage]

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Category:Living people

Category:Memory researchers

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Category:Indiana University faculty

Category:Rumelhart Prize laureates

Category:1942 births

Category:Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society

Category:APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology recipients