Memory #1 (short term/working memory)

Memory as an Information Processing Approach?

"The mind, like a computer, is a processing system that encodes, stores, and retrieves information."

What is Memory?

-Memory is the storage and retrieval of information. -Memory involves retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present.

What are Sensory Registers? What are the 2 types of Sensory Registers?

-Sensory registers are the initial information processors. They detect and briefly hold incoming sensory information. • Iconic Store: (eye) our visual sensory register is called the Iconic Store, which holds visual information. Only lasts a fraction of a second, so it is almost impossible to retain complete information in purely visual form. For example, the quick flash of light you see. • Echoic store: (ear) the auditory sensory register is called the Echoic Store, which holds auditory information. Lasts about 2 seconds, which is MORE than Iconic memory.

What is the Three-Component Model?

-The Three-Component Model proposes that memory has THREE major components: 1. sensory memory 2. short-term or "working" memory 3. long-term memory.

What is 2. Short Term Memory?

-Through selective attention, a small portion of sensory memory enters Short Term Memory, which temporarily holds the information in our consciousness. -Short Term Memory can only hold a LIMITED amount of information at a time. Capacity and Duration -Most people can hold no more than 5 to 9 meaningful items in short-term memory. Capacity: (7 plus or minus 2 "bits"/items) 5-9 items Duration: (20-sec or so without a control process)

What are the 3 processes of Memory? What are they responsible for?

1. Encoding 2. Storage 3. Retrieval they represent what our memory system does with information.

Working Memory can be divided into FOUR components:

4 components of Working Memory 1. The phonological loop 2. The visuospatial sketch pad 3. The episodic buffer 4. The central executive

What is 1. Chunking?

Chunking: Combining individual items into larger units of meaning to INCREASE CAPACITY of info.

What is 2. Control Processes: Maintenance Rehearsal & Elaborative Rehearsal?

Control Processes: Maintenance Rehearsal and Elaborative Rehearsal INCREASE/EXTENDS Short Term Memory DURATION of info in the mind. Control Processes: -Maintenance rehearsal (Simple repetition) ex, keep repeating someone's name after they introduce themselves. -Elaborative rehearsal (Focus on meaning, relating it to other things we know) ex, milk, cheese, eggs (think about a cake) Both types of rehearsal keep info active in short-term memory, but ELABORTAIVE REHEARSAL is MORE EFFECTIVE in transferring info into Long-term memory.

What is 1. Encoding?

Encoding: refers to getting information into the system by translating it into a neural code that your brain can understand processes.

How can we experimentally Test Short-Term Memory?

Given lists of words e.g., apple, simple, burden... Recall as many words as you can. Participants who were prevented from practicing these words showed almost no recall within 18 seconds, illustration a rapid forgetting of information in short-term memory.

How can we experimentally Measuring Sensory Memory?

Measuring capacity and duration of iconic sensory register: - George Sperling conducted an experiment to asses how long our visual sensory register (Iconic store) takes to store information. -Array of letters flashed quickly on a screen -Participants asked to report as many as possible -Whole or Partial Report Method

What are 4 Memory Codes/Representations?

Memory codes/representations are how the brain represents and makes sense of information received through the senses. For example, the words that someone just spoke to you, "Please buy gum" must somehow become REPRESENTED in your mind. Such mental representations, or memory codes, can take various forms in the STM/WM, such as: 1• Visually (via mental images) 2• Phonologically (via sounds) 3• Semantically (via meaning of a stimulus) 4• Action (via motor patterns) Errors happen if you try store too much information in one system too quickly.

What is 3. Retrieval?

Retrieval: pulling information back out of your mind for use

What is 1. Sensory memory?

Sensory memory holds incoming sensory information just long enough for it to be recognized. Sensory memory is composed of different subsystems, called SENSORY REGISTERS.

Short Term Memory vs Working Memory

Short-Term Memory Made up of...Single component Concerned with...Storing information Working Memory Made up of.... Multiple components Concerned with.... Manipulating information

What is 2. Storage?

Storage: involves retaining information over time. Once in the system, information must be filed away and saved.

If Short Term Memory is so limited, how do we ever get by on a daily basis? What are 2 systems that increase the capacity and increase duration of Short Term Memory?

We have systems that allow us to increase the capacity and storage duration of Short Term Memory. 1. Chunking (increases capacity, allows you to hold more info) 2. Control Processes: maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal (increases duration, stays in memory longer)

What is 1. The phonological loop ?

Working Memory: 1. The phonological loop First, we maintain some information in an auditory working memory (the phonological loop), such as when you repeat a phone number, name, or new words to yourself mentally. -Deals with spoken and written information. -How you follow a conversation.

What is 2. The visuospatial sketch pad ?

Working Memory: 2. The visuospatial sketch pad A second component, visual spatial working memory (the visuospatial sketch pad), allows us to temporarily store and manipulate images and spatial information, as when forming mental maps of the route to some destination. -The "inner eye" -Stores and processes visual and spatial information -Involved in navigation

What is 3. The episodic buffer ?

Working Memory: 3. The episodic buffer The third component, the episodic buffer, provides temporary storage space where information from long-term memory and from the phonological loop and/or visuospatial subsystems can be integrated, manipulated, and made available for conscious awareness. *USED WHEN YOU CHUNK INFO* -Most recently added component -Communicates with both long-term memory and the other components of working memory -Links visual, spatial, and verbal information with *TIME sequencing* *-Memory of a story or movie*

What is the 4. The central executive ?

Working Memory: 4. The central executive A control process, called the central executive, directs the actions and is in control of the working memory. It decides how much attention to allocate to other components of working memory, calls upon long term memory, and integrates input. -Handles cognitive tasks like mental math and problem-solving

What is Working Memory?

Working Memory: A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing and manipulation of incoming information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory for complex tasks. - a "mental work space" that actively and simultaneously processes different types of information and supports other cognitive functions, such as problem solving and planning, and interacts with long-term memory. -working memory is like the office of a busy librarian, who is energetically organizing, and cross-referencing new material. Holding information in active memory to "work on" e.g., mental math (calls up info from long term) Information lasts about 20 s Rapidly lost unless in use