Memory Memory stages and systems D Encoding: putting information in memory D Creating separate patterns for experiences (memory traces) DStorage: retaining encoded information Maintenance and organization of patterns Retrieval: recovering stored information to a cue D When a cue completes a pattern of a stored memory (the trace) Sensory memory: iconic, echoic and haptic - seconds Short term memory: attentional control - working memory - 30 seconds Long-term memory: Implicit (procedural and priming), Explicit (episodic, semantic) - minutes to years Sensory memory Echoic memory: a sound byte held for approximately three seconds Haptic memory: a very brief memory of touch Iconic memory: visual information held very briefly (milliseconds). 'persistence of vision' Afterimages: positive afterimage - a sensory memory contains the original image Negative afterimage - a sensory memory contains the inverted colors from the original image Sensory memory capacity is large but only lasts for a second. Short term and working memory Attentional processes move information from sensory to short term memory The intermediate system between sensory and long-term memory Limited capacity but longer than sensory memory Working memory: multicomponent working memory model: working with different information into short term memory. Phonological loop: Phonological store: passive store of verbal information
Articulatory control loop: subvocal rehearsal of verbal information. Used to convert written material into sound Visuospatial sketchpad: Visual cache: info about features, identity, patterns -> passive Inner scribe: info about spatial location and movement, sequence movements -> active Episodic buffer: Integrates information from many sources. Explains how separate working memory systems interact Chunking DA strategy to group items together in some meaningful way in our short-term memory to allow more information to be represented at one time Remember these letters: TVFBIJFKCIAIBM TV FBI JFK CIA IBM Chunking ability increases with knowledge. E.G. chess players can use knowledge of game configurations to 'chuck' pieces together. But if the pieces are positioned randomly the memory is the same for both groups. Encoding long-term memories Early memory research: Ebbinghaus: Experimentally tested how info is forgotten. - The forgetting curve: Forgetting is logarithmic (or exponential) - more at the beginning, less over time - The spacing effect: Memory is better when the same amount of learning is spread out over time - Serial positions effect: better recall of the first few items from a learned list because they get a lot of rehearsal (primacy effect). Better recall of the final few items available from the final few items (recency effect) because of short-term processes Decay theory: forgetting occurs because of time. A memory trace decays as time passes. Interference theory: forgetting occurs because of interfering information. Info presented after study interferes with to-be-remembered material.
Retroactive interference ('backward in time') D Newly learned information interferes with old information 0 When you cannot remember your old phone number Proactive interference ('forward in time') Previously learned material interferes with new information When you have trouble learning a new phone number Forgetting mechanisms actually support flexible behaviors. Remembering one event can trigger the recall of others competing events.