What is the definition of memory?
The process by which the mind stores and remembers information
What are the 3 types of memory?
Sensory memory (SM), short term memory (STM) and long term memory (LTM)
What is sensory memory (SM)?
It is the initial contact for stimuli and its only capable of retaining information for a very short time
What is short term memory (STM)?
It is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about right now.
Information found in STM comes from paying attention to SM
What is long term memory? (LTM)?
It is the continual storage of information for an extended period of time
What is capacity?
This measures how much can be stored in memory
What is duration?
This measures how long a memory lasts before it can no longer be remembered
What is coding?
The way information is stored in memory. For example, it can be written, acoustic (sound), semantic (meaning) or pictured (images)
What is rehearsal?
This refers to the things that we remember due to practicing them in our memories
What is retrieval?
This refers to things that are stored in our LTM and that we ‘retrieve’ when we need it
What is decay?
This refers to memories being forgotten over time
What is displacement?
Memories which were forgotten for a while but still can be remembered
What is the Multi-store model of memory?
It was first described by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. It represents how memory works in terms of short term memory and long term memory
- Explains how our memories work based on STM, LTM and SM
- Describes how information is transferred from one memory store to another
What does the sensory register (SR) do and what are the characteristics?
It firstly gathers information from our sensory organs and each sense is encoded differently
- It has a large capacity
- Has a limited duration of less than 0.5s
- If we pay attention to sensory information then it will pass to STM
STM VS LTM - Capacity
- Joseph Jacobs presented numbers and asked for immediate recall to test STM capacity
- Found average recall to be 5-9 numbers
- Concluded that we could hold 7 bits of information in STM
What is the coding in STM?
It’s based on acoustic information or sounds
What is maintenance rehearsal?
It is the constant repeating which allows information to be held in STM (e.g, repeating a phone number)
What is prolonged rehearsal?
It transfers information from STM to LTM by processing the information semantically (gives it meaning)
What are the characteristics of LTM?
- Has unlimited capacity
- Has the duration of a few minutes to a lifetime
- LTM encodes information semantically (meaning)
