U of P Psy 360 Memory Worksheet

658 Words3 Pages
University of Phoenix Material Memory Worksheet Using the text, Cognition: The Thinking Animal, the University Library, the Internet, and/or other resources, answer the following questions. Your response to each question should be at least 150 words in length. 1. What is primary memory? 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. Semantic-based memory is not as limited because it utilizes a process known as “chunking.” Chunking in a process that increases the capacity of primary memory by having the secondary memory doing the translating, or encoding, using semantics. The reason that Primary memory is temporary is because interference and decay effect what can be stored in that area of the brain at one time. Any damage or factors that would prohibit the Primary Memory storing information effect that future or past memories have on the current information stored in primary memory. Decay is the biggest interference to the ability of Primary Memory and limits its capacity and the required attention to retrieve information. 2. What is the process of memory from perception to retrieval? What happens when the process is compromised? The path that is utilized to information to travel from perception to retrieval is through the cognitive path. While the sensory memory has a
Open Document