SENSORY, SHORT-TERM, AND LONG-TERM MEMORY

SENSORY MEMORY:

- The entry point for memory.

- Sensory memory is an exact replica of everything that we see

- We can only store it for a brief period of time, so we cant pay attention to it for very long.

- Duration: 0.2 secs-4 secs

- Capacity: unlimited

Each sense has a different memory store:

- visual information= iconic memory (think icon)

-auditory information=echoic memory(think echo)

The visual sensory memory:

duration= 0.2-0.4 secs

capacity= unlimited

The auditory sensory memory:

duration= 3-4 secs

capacity=unlimited

SENSORY MEMORY: THE ENTRY POINT OF MEMORY WHERE NEW INCOMING SENSORY INFORMATION IS STORED FOR A VERY BRIEF PERIOD.

- Thousands of sights, sounds, smells and stimuli from our environment attack our sensory receptors.

- This information is briefly held in our sensory memory.

- An important function of sensory memory is that it stores sensory impressions long enouch for each impression to slightly overlap the next.

- This helps make sure that we perceive the world around us as continuous and not a series of disconnected visual images/sounds.

- Sensory information remains in sensory memory just long enough for us to attend to and select information we want to transfer to short-term memory.

- It is a TEMPORARY STORAGE SYSTEM.

- If sensory information is not attended to and no further processing occurr, its impression fades and therefore cannot be transferred to Short Term Memory, and is then permanently lost from experience.

- Incoming sensory information is stored in SENSORY REGISTERS (a separate sensory register for each of the senses)

ICONIC MEMORY: Describes visual sensory memory.

EXPERIMENT:

To experience iconic memory, shut your eyes for 1 minute, towards the end of the minute, hold your hand 25cm in front of your eyes. Open your eyes and then rapidly close them again. You should see an image of your hand that fades away in less than a second.

American psychologist George Sperling first demonstrated the existence of the sensory register.

READ BOX 6.1 ON PAGE 337

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY:

An EIDETIC MEMORY is the ability to remember with great accuracy visual information after short term exposure.

Look at the picture below for 30 secs, then try and answer the questions on the next slide without referring back to the picture.

QUESTIONS TO TEST EIDETIC MEMORY:

1) What colour is the girls dress?

2) Where are the girls arms?

3) Is the cat looking to the right or its left?

4) How many red flower spikes are there?

5) What colour is the girls hair?

6) How many stripes are there on the bottom of the girls dress?

If you correctly answered all these questions, then you may have an eidetic memory

ECHOIC: 3-4 SECS

ICONIC: 0.2-0.4 SECS

echoic memory:

Used to describe auditory sensory information.

- The main difference between ICONIC and ECHOIC memories seem to be the length of time it takes for information to fade.

EG: Think about when theres been a time you might have been reading something, but you have your TV on or Social media going and someone asks you a question. You are aware they are speaking to you, but your attention is focused somewhere else so you dont immediately respond to the message.

SHORT TERM MEMORY (STM):

A memory system with limited storage capacity in which information is stored for a short period of time, unless renewed in some way.

- It is longer than sensory memory stores

- The information is no longer an exact replica of the sensory stimulus, but instead it has been ENCODED.

A common method of renewal is MAINTENANCE REHEARSAL: continual repetition.

DURATION OF STM:

18-30 SECS

If the stimulus has not been renewed in some way, the information is lost.

CAPACITY OF STM:

Compared to Sensory memory and LTM, STM has a very limited storage capacity.

- The amount of information it can hold at any one time is about seven bits of information

- When STM is full, new items can only be added by pushing old items out

- Space in STM is also filled when we think and when information is temporarily retrieved from LTM.

Lets test your stm:

Measuring STM capacity using a digit span test. Using a piece of paper (or some other object), cover all the numbers below. Then, progressively move the paper to uncover each row of numbers, one row at a time.

Read the first set of numbers, cover it up, then write the numbers down in their correct order. Repeat this procedure until you reach a row where you begin making errors. The longest string you are able to reproduce without error is your STM digit span.

9 1 5

3 7 2 4

8 6 9 7 3

1 9 2 8 0 5

4 8 2 6 3 9 1

2 5 3 9 6 0 8 7

5 8 9 5 1 6 9 0 2

7 2 9 6 1 0 9 4 3 6

6 9 4 0 5 8 1 7 2 5 8

2 0 8 4 1 9 7 6 3 2 7 5

TO INCREASE DURATION OF STM: REHEARSAL

TO INCREASE CAPACITY OF STM: CHUNKING

Read box 6.4 on page 346 on "Chunking".

lEARNING ACTIVITY 6.7: PAGE 347:

Please answer the following questions in your notes:

1) Give an example of an experimental research that could be conducted to test the storage of STM

2) How could you temporarily extend the suration of your STM?

3) In what ways is STM like sensory memory and unlike sensory memory?

4) Explain with reference to an example why STM may be described as working memory?

5) In what two ways is information commonly lost from STM?

LONG TERM MEMORY: (LTM)

Stores a potentially unlimited amount of information for a very long time.

- There are two main types of LTM:

1) EXPLICIT MEMORY

2) IMPLICIT MEMORY

EXPLICIT= WITH AWARENESS

IMPLICIT= WITHOUT AWARENESS

LTM DIAGRAM:

EXPLICIT MEMORY:

Memory that occurs when information can be consciously or intentionally retrieved and stated.

- "Memory with awareness"

- EG: remembering someones name, a password, a phone number, colours on a flag, explaining statistics, remembering what you ate for dinner last night.

- There is a deliberate and conscious retrieval of stored information

Explicit memories are also called :declarative memories, because if asked we can consciously "declare" or state something.

Explicit memories has 2 sub types:

EPISODIC MEMORY:

- Memory of personally experienced events

- makes is possible for us to be consciously aware of a previous experience in a certain situation at a certain time.

- considered to be like a "mental personal diary"

SEMANTIC MEMORY:

- Memory of facts and knowledge about the world

- everyday facts and general knowledge

- the meaning of words

- rules

IMPLICIT MEMORY:

Involves memory that does not require conscious or intentional retrieval.

- you are not aware that you are accessing that information.

- "Memory without awareness"

- EG: Motor skills such as brushing your teeth, riding a bike.

- Implicit memory also includes classically conditioned responses such as fears, and things that you dont like the taste of.

there are 2 subtypes of implicit memory:

PROCEDURAL MEMORY:

Memory of motor skills and actions that have been learned previously.

- Memories of "how to do something"

- demonstrated through performance (behaviour) and include what are sometimes called skill, motor, body or muscle memories.

- require little to no intentional attempt to retrieve.

CLASSICALLY CONDITIONED MEMORY:

Conditioned responses to conditioned stimuli acquired through classical conditioning, especially those involving fear or anxiety.

- EG you immediately experience fear or anxiety when you see a spider because of past associations with anxiety, implicit memory is involved.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS:

Please make sure you have taken notes from this presentation and then go to PG 355 and do questions:

Learning activity 6.11:

1, 2 (a), 3(a) (b), 5

Learning activity 6.12:

all of them