Memory Drum
date: label: date made
content: ca 1928-1930
name: label: maker
content: University of Arkansas
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument has an L- shaped wooden base with six rubber feet. The base supports a wooden framework which holds a hollow metal drum. A piece of paper with various words typed on it is taped to the drum. The drum has a metal cover with a slit that reveals one row of words. Two slides in the slit can cover some of these words. The drum is moved by a handle (which is at one end) or a motor (which is on the on the part of the L, and joined to the other end of the drum). A mark on the motor reads: E/ dison/ konowatt.
label: Description
content: Compare the memory drum with number 1979.3065.01. Both were acquired at the same time from the Psychology Department at the University of Arkansas.
label: Description
content: Joel S. Freund, an emeritus faculty member at the University of Arkansas psychology department who helped to arrange the donation, suggests that these memory drums may have been associated with research of psychologist John A. McGeoch, who was at the University of Arkansas from 1928 to 1930.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Personal Communication, Joel S. Freund, December 5, 2019.
label: Description
content: John A. McGeoch, “The Influence of Degree of Learning upon Retroactive Inhibition,” <I>American Journal of Psychology</I>, vol. 41 #2 (April 1929), pp. 252-262. On p. 252, McGeoch refers to using a Chicago memory drum (a product of C. H. Stoelting Company of Chicago).
label: Description
content: John A. McGeoch and William T. McDonald, “Meaningful Relation and Retroactive Inhibition,“ <I>American Journal of Psychology</I>, vo. 43 #4 (October 1931), pp. 579-588. By this time McGeoch had moved to the University of Missouri, but he reports on work done at the University of Arkansas. He mentions an “electrically driven memory drum: on p. 581.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Arkansas, Fayetteville
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of University of Arkansas, Department of Psychology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0850.01
label: accession number
content: 1979.0850
label: catalog number
content: 1979.0850.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Memory Drum
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 27.6 cm x 54 cm x 45.8 cm; 10 7/8 in x 21 1/4 in x 18 1/16 in