Topic 2

• Memory

  There are 3 types of memory function:

  
  

  SENSORY MEMORY

  SHORT-TERM MEMORY

  LONG -TERM MEMORY
• Sensory Memory

  Buffers for stimuli received through senses

  o iconic memory: visual stimuli

  o echoic memory: aural stimuli

  o haptic memory: tactile stimuli

  o Gustatory memory

  o Olfactory memory

  • Examples

  o “sparkler” trail

  o stereo sound

  o Continuously overwritten
• Short Term Memory

  Also called the working memory

  • Acts as the Scratch-pad for temporary recall

  o rapid access ~ 70ms

  o rapid decay ~ 200ms

  o limited capacity - 7± 2 chunks
• Long Term Memory

  EPISODIC MEMORY

  • Episodic memory represents our memory of experiences and specific

  events in time in a serial form, from which we can reconstruct the

  actual events that took place at any given point in our lives

  • It is the memory of autobiographical events (times, places, associated

  emotions and other contextual knowledge) that can be explicitly

  stated

  • Individuals tend to see themselves as actors in these events, and the

  emotional charge and the entire context surrounding an event is

  usually part of the memory, not just the bare facts of the event itself.
• SEMANTIC MEMORY

  • is a more structured record of facts, meanings, concepts and

  knowledge about the external world that we have acquired

  • refers to general factual knowledge, shared with others and

  independent of personal experience and of the spatial/temporal

  context in which it was acquired.

  • includes such things as types of food, capital cities, social customs,

  functions of objects, vocabulary, understanding of mathematics, etc.

  • Much of semantic memory is abstract and relational and is associated

  with the meaning of verbal symbols.
• LTM - Storage of Information

  REHEARSAL

  • information moves from STM to LTM

  TOTAL TIME HYPOTHESIS

  • amount retained proportional to rehearsal time

  DISTRIBUTION OF PRACTICE EFFECT

  • optimized by spreading learning over time

  STRUCTURE, MEANING AND FAMILIARITY

  • information easier to remember
• LTM - Fogetting

  DECAY

  • information is lost gradually but very slowly

  INTERFERENCE

  • new information replaces old: retroactive interference

  • old may interfere with new: proactive interference
• LTM - Retrieval

  RECALL

  • information reproduced from memory can be assisted by

  cues, e.g. categories, imagery

  RECOGNITION

  • information gives knowledge that it has been seen before

  • less complex than recall - information is cue