Abstract: The traditional experimental study of memory adopts a quantity-oriented conception. In this conception, memory is regarded as a storehouse into which discrete items of information are initially deposited and then later retrieved, and memory is evaluated in terms of the number of items that can be recovered over some retention interval. Recently, however, memory study is turning to be on meaningful stimuli has almost always been found to be accuracy-oriented. In this accuracy-oriented approach, memory is viewed as a representation or reconstruction of past experience, and evaluated in terms of its correspondence or fit with past events. This present paper analyses the basic characteristics of the accuracy-oriented research, and discusses some of the theoretical issues that accuracy-oriented approach to memory must face.

Key words: study of memory, memory illusions, quantity oriented, accuracy oriented.