Memory

• Sensory register


  Part of memory that comprises several registers (sensory memory stores), one for each of our five senses. Coding in each store is modality-specific (depends on the sense).
• Sensory registers


  • Very brief duration (less than half a second)
  • Very high capacity (e.g. over one hundred million cells in one eye)
• Attention


  Key process for information to pass from sensory registers into the memory system
• Short-term memory (STM)


  Information is coded mainly acoustically and lasts about 18 seconds unless rehearsed
• Short-term memory (STM)


  • Limited capacity store
  • Can only contain a certain number of things before forgetting occurs
• Maintenance rehearsal


  Repeating (rehearsing) material to ourselves over and over to keep it in STM
• Long-term memory (LTM)


  • Potentially permanent memory store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time
  • Coded mostly semantically (in terms of meaning)
• Capacity of LTM is thought to be practically unlimited
• Retrieval


  Process of transferring information from LTM back into STM when we want to recall it
• Working memory model (WMM)

  Explanation of how short-term memory is organised and functions
• Components of WMM


  • Central executive
  • Phonological loop
  • Visuo-spatial sketchpad
  • Episodic buffer
• Central executive (CE)


  Supervisory role, monitors incoming data, focuses and divides attention, allocates subsystems to tasks. Has very limited processing capacity and does not store information.
• Phonological loop (PL)


  Deals with auditory information, preserves order of information, consists of phonological store and articulatory process for maintenance rehearsal
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)


  Stores visual and/or spatial information, consists of visual cache and inner scribe
• Episodic buffer (EB)


  Temporary store that integrates information from other stores, maintains sense of time sequencing, links working memory to long-term memory