Memory
Process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present.
Active any time a past experience has an effect on how you think or behave in the present or future.
Categorized into three different types; sensory memory (seconds or fractions of a second), short - term memory (10 - 15 seconds), and long - term memory (minutes to lifetime)
Modal Model of Memory
Proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin; describes memory as a mechanism involving a flow of information through three structural features
- Sensory Memory: the initial stage holding all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second
- Short - term memory (STM): Holds five to seven items for about 15 - 20 seconds
- Long - Term Memory (LTM): a high - capacity system that can hold information for years or decades
Control Processes
Dynamic activities associated with these features that a person can control, such as rehearsal (repeating a stimulus to keep it in STM) or strategies to make a stimulus more memorable
Encoding
Process of storing information in LTM
Retrieval
Process of remembering information stored in LTM bringing it back to STM
Persistence of Vision
Continued perception of a visual stimulus even after it is gone
Sperling’s Experiments
Measured the capacity and duration of the sensory store using different report methods
Whole Report Method
Participant could only report an average of 4.5 out of 12 letters
Partial Report Method
Participants hear a tone indicating which row to report immediately after the flash and correctly reported about 82% of the letters
Delayed Partial Report Method
When the cue tone was delayed by one second, performance dropped to about one letter per row, showing sensory memory decays rapidly
Iconic Memory (Visual Icon)
Brief sensory memory for visual stimuli
Echoic Memory
Brief sensory memory for auditory stimuli, lasting for a few seconds
Digit Span
Average STM capacity is between five and nine items
Chunking
The process of combining small units into larger meaningful units (chunks) to increase the amount of information held in STM
Change Detection
More recent research suggests a capacity of only four items
Participant S.F.
Through training and chunking random digits into meaningful running times, he increased his digit span from 7 to 79 digits
Information Load
Capacity is determined not just by the number of items, but by the complexity/amount of information
Baddeley’s Three - Component Model
- Phonological Loop
- Visuospatial Sketch Pad
- Central Executive
Phonological Loop
Handles verbal and auditory information through the phonological store (limited duration) and articulatory rehearsal process
Phonological Similarity Effect: confusion of letters or words that sound similar
Word Length Effect: It is harder to remember a list of long words because they take longer to rehearse
Articulatory Suppression: repeating an irrelevant sound (ex, “the the the”) prevents rehearsal and reduces the memory span
Visuospatial Sketch Pad
Handles visual and spatial information and is involved in visual imagery
Mental Rotation: Solving problems by rotating an image of an object in the mind
Central Executive
Acts as the “traffic cop” that coordinates activity, focusses attention, and pulls information from LTM
The Episodic Buffer
An added component that increases storage capacity and provides a link to long - term memory
Patient S
Russian memory expert studied extensively by Alexander Luria. Memory was described as “virtually limitless” as he appeared to have no capacity or duration limits and could perfectly recall all types of information in exact order
