Short & Long-term Memory

Making Memory - Review

Three things have to happen:

1. Get information into our brain through encoding.

2. Retain that information by the process of storage.

3. Get the information back through retrieval.

Making Memory - Review

The process that makes it happen:

External Events

Sensory Memory

Long-term Memory Storage

Sensory InputSensory Input Encoding

Working Short-term

Memory

Encoding

Retrieving

Maintenance Rehearsal

Attention to important or novel

information

Automatic Processing

Sensory Memory

Making Memory - Review

Sensory Memory• The first stage of memory, the point at

which information enters the nervous system through the sensory systems.

• Iconic memory - visual sensory memory, lasting only a fraction of a second.• Capacity - everything that can be seen

at one time.

• Duration - information that has just entered iconic memory will be pushed out very quickly by new information

Making Memory - Review

Sensory Memory• The first stage of memory, the point at

which information enters the nervous system through the sensory systems.

• Echoic memory - the brief memory of something a person has just heard.• Capacity - limited to what can be

heard at any one moment and is smaller than the capacity of iconic memory.

• Duration - lasts longer than iconic — about 2 to 4 seconds.

Making Memory

The process that makes it happen:

External Events

Sensory Memory

Long-term Memory Storage

Sensory InputSensory Input Encoding

Working Short-term

Memory

Encoding

Retrieving

Maintenance Rehearsal

Attention to important or novel

information

Automatic Processing

WorkingShort-term

Memory

Short-Term Memory

• Short-term memory (STM) - the memory system in which information is held for brief periods of time while being used.

•Working memory - an active system that processes the information in short-term memory.

• Capacity of STM is about seven items, plus or minus two (5 to 9 bits of information)

Short-Term Memory

•Selective attention works in the short-term memory.• The ability to focus on only one stimulus

from among all sensory input.

• Sometimes called cocktail effect

Short-Term Memory

•Without rehearsal STM lasts about 12 – 30 seconds•Maintenance Rehearsal is the practice of saying information to be remembered over-and-over again

Strengthen Long-term Memory

• Elaborative rehearsal: A method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way

Making Memory

The process that makes it happen:

External Events

Sensory Memory

Long-term Memory Storage

Sensory InputSensory Input Encoding

Working Short-term

Memory

Encoding

Retrieving

Maintenance Rehearsal

Attention to important or novel

information

Automatic Processing

Long-term Memory

Long-Term Memory

• There are two types of LTM:• Procedural memory – stuff people

can do• Ride a bike, tie shoes, habits & conditioned

reflexes

• Declarative memory – stuff people can know• Facts, knowledge, personal information

Long-Term Memory

There are two types of Declarative Memory

Long-term Memory

Declarative Memory

Things you know

Procedural Memory

Things you do

Episodic MemoryEvents experienced

by a person

Semantic MemoryFacts,

General knowledge

How good is your Semantic Memory?

• Get into groups of 4 – 5

• I will give you a category

• Each person must come up with an example from the category.

• Keep going around the circle, eliminate people who can’t come up with an example or who repeat something already said

• If someone stalls, use a 5 second countdown

• If a vote is needed, thumbs up, thumbs down. Majority rules.

• Brands of cereal• Advertising slogans• One word movie titles • College Mascots• Two word cities• Fast food restaurants• TV families • Mathematical symbols• Punctuation marks• Rivers • Female singers • Sports balls

• Brands of chewing gum• Things found at a beach• Mexican food• Red things• Things you plug in• Birds• Flowers• Units of measurement• Famous dogs• Candy bars• Emotions• Athletic shoe companies