What is Sensory Memory’s capacity, duration and function?
- Function: To sustain information about identification
- Duration: 1/2-3 seconds
- Capacity: very large (“scenic)
How did the Sperling study measure the duration and capacity of sensory memory?
- Had a block with a dot in the middle and then flashed 3 rows of four letters for about half a second (counted how many you could remember)
- had you only write down one row, but you didn’t know which row you had to write down until after
- varied the duration of the letters flashing to measure how long sensory memory lasted
What is Echoic Memory and it’s duration?
- auditory processing
- duration = 3 seconds
What is Iconic Memory and it’s duration?
- visual processing
- duration = 1/2 second
- *so quick that we have very little if any conscious awareness of it
What are attention, rehearsal, encoding and retrieval?
- Attention: selects information from sensory memory
- Rehearsal: Maintains information in working memory
- Encoding: sends information to long-term memory
- Retrieval: Brings information from LTM to working memory
What is short-term memory’s capacity, duration and function?
Function: to do conscious work, to think
Duration: 10-15 seconds without rehearsal
Capacity: 7 plus or minus 2 items
How did Peterson and Peterson study the duration of short-term memory?
- Remember letters
- Count backwards by 7s
- Keeps you from rehearsing so we can see how quickly the memory fades
What are long-term memory’s capacity, duration and function?
- Function: to tie together the past with the present
- Capacity: enormous (essentially unlimited)
- Duration: very long (essentially permanent)
What is Episodic memory and examples?
- Everyday events and personal experiences (conscious)
- What did you have for breakfast today
- Who was the lecturer in psych 1001 last week
- Where were you on your 18th birthday
What is Semantic memory and examples?
- general world knowledge that humans have accumulated throughout their lives (conscious)
- What is your mother’s first name
- What kind of bird is black and white, lives in the antarctic, and swims rather than flies
What is Procedural Memory?
- knowledge about how to do things (unconscious)
- Tying your shoes
- Driving a car
- Juggling
- Playing a musical instrument
Who is Clive Wearing? (Significance)
- has chronic anterograde and retrograde amnesia
- lost all memories of his past and cannot form new memories
- shows the importance of long-term memory in connecting past to present and guiding us in our actions
What is the serial position effect?
- Performance is best at the beginning and end of recall vs. the middle
- creates a sort of curve that looks like a U
What is recency?
- You are more likely to remember things that are more recent in your memory
- only effective if you are asked to recall shortly after the exercise
What is primacy?
- You are more likely to remember things that occur at the beginning of a sequence
- more time for repetition/rehearsal
What are the different kinds of long-term memory?
- Explicit –> in your awareness (episodic and semantic)
- Implicit –> outside your awareness (procedural, classical conditioning, priming)
What is a mnemonic?
a memory aid, such as an abbreviation, rhyme or mental image that helps to remember something.
What is imagery?
Creating an image of what a word looks like to help remember it
What is the method of loci?
imagining walking through a familiar place with landmarks acting as memory cues
What is the keyword method?
Imagining an interaction between words to help remember it
What is a narrative technique?
Weave together a story to remember a list
What is the misinformation effect?
when a person’s recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event information
What is source monitoring errors?
a type of memory error where the source of a memory is incorrectly attributed to some specific recollected experience
What are examples of implanted memories?
- being lost in a mall as a child
- tying your shoes on the sidewalk as your friends walk ahead
