A neural network model of implicit memory for object recognition

Abstract—People name well-known objects shown in pictures more quickly if they have studied them previously. The most common in-terpretation of this priming effect is that processing is facilitated by an implicit memory trace in a perceptual representation system. We show that object priming can be explained instead as a bias in information processing, without recourse to an implicit memory system. Assump-tions about psychological decision-making processes and bias were added to a neural network model for object identification, and the model accounted for performance both qualitatively and quantita-tively in four object identification experiments. In a priming experiment with pictured objects, subjects are asked to name the objects and then, as much as a week later, name them again. Repeated objects are named faster than new objects, even by amnesics who cannot consciously recollect them (Cave & Squire