They investigated the idea that memory wasn’t a single process but involved more than one stage. Also, different stages in memory operate together, giving us a good memory. However, some people’s memory is better than others. There are three different sections. The first section is the sensory memory.
Short term memory allows us to hold onto information long enough to use it. It deals with new data from the sensory memory and old information retrieved from the long term memory. It has duration of 18 seconds but this can be longer if the information is rehearsed, this is usually done acoustically. The short term memory has a limited capacity so information is often lost when new data comes in, this can be reduced by ‘chunking’ information (grouping info together). Long term memory is a more permanent store; we retrieve past experiences and knowledge from it.
Short term memory (STM) is considered as incoming information from the sense which we attend to for only a short period of time. Only when we attend to the incoming sensory information and rehearse it does that information transfer from short term memory to long term memory. Short term memory is thought to be limited to 18-30 seconds, information that is not processed into long term memory is then lost through decay or displacement. The three main areas to memory are encoding, which is the way information is changed so it can be stored in memory. The information enters the brain via the senses including eyes and ears, it is then stored in various forms such as visual codes (pictures), acoustic form (sound based) or semantic form (how we attach meaning or experiences) Encoding
What are the characteristics of primary memory? Basically the Primary memory is what is more often called short-term memory. Primary memory is the area of the brain where the information we have gathers is temporarily processed as given coding that human minds can understand, manipulated, and sorted into items that will be forgotten or passed on to secondary memory. The Primary Memory is only able to hold between 5 and 9 units depending on the type of item being processed and individual unique mind and abilities. Willingham states that primary memory is limited to 2 seconds of acoustic code and four visuospatial objects.
Memory is stored and retained overtime then the information is retrieved from the memory when needed. Working Memory “The working memory (WM) refers to a brain system that provides temporary storage and manipulation of the information necessary for such complex cognitive tasks as language comprehension, learning, and reasoning (Baddeley , 2009).” According to Baddeley, “WM requires the immediate storage and processing of information and can be divided into the following three subcomponents: (1) the central executive, which is assumed to be an attentive and controlling system and is important in skills, and two subordinate systems, that is to say (2) the visuospatial sketch
The superior recall of items at the start of the list is called the primary effect, whilst the superior recall of the items at the end of the list is called the recency effect. This is good evidence for the multi-store model of memory because it shows the difference between the STM and the LTM. Rundus & Atkinson (1970) Rundus and Atkinson asked participants to rehearse out loud the list they were given (similar to Murdock's experiment). Tape recordings showed that words from the beginning of the list were more likely to be rehearsed than later ones. Because of the limited capacity of the STM, words from the middle of the list are thought to be lost completely or unavailable for recall.
Short term memory, also known as active memory, is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about. Freudian psychology, calls this the conscious mind. Some sensory memory is turned into short term memory if enough attention is given to the thought. Short term memory usually last about 20 – 30 seconds. An example would be: I look up a part number and remember it long enough to order one.
Iconic memory is visual memory, whereas echoic memory refers to sounds. Most of this information is lost very quickly, and only information that is considered important is passed on to short-term memory. Short-term memory is where information is stored for about 30 seconds. The amount of
The phonological loop deals with auditory information and preserves the order of information. It is called the phonological loop because there is the articulacy loop which silently repeats words in order to remember them. There is also a phonological loop which holds words you hear. Meanwhile the visuo spatial sketchpad deals with visual and spatial information such as remembering a journey. Both these stores connect to the final store, the episodic buffer.
Research supporting the working memory model can be seen in Baddeley, Thomson and Buchanan’s research in 1975 of the phonological loop. Their research saw participants recalling one word at a time, of varying lengths. They found that performance was superior in short words (monosyllabic), rather than polysyllabic words. This shows that the capacity of the phonological loop is determined by the length of time it takes to say the words to yourself rather than the number of items. So there are some confounding variables that can alter your ability to remember some words, rather than just rehearsal, or attention, as suggested in the multi-store memory model.