Summary Memory Notes for BSc Psychology: Psychology and the Brain

4PAHPBIO Psychology and the Brain Week 6
Psychology BSc Year 1 Memory




MEMORY

6.1 THE FRACTIONATION OF MEMORY: SHORT-TERM MEMORY;
WORKING MEMORY; LONG-TERM MEMORY. 6.3 IMPORTANT
THEORIES IN THE COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MEMORY.

• Through neuroimaging and behavioural research over the past decades, it has been accepted that
there are multiple memory systems
o Several models and theories have been developed to explain the complexity of human
memory
• There are believed to be three stages of memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval

Encoding
• Encoding is the first stage is where sensory information is changed into a format that cognitive
memory systems can store and is meaningful when retrieved
• Information is encoded differently depending on the stimulus, such as visual (pictures), acoustic
(sound), or semantic (meaning or understanding)

Storage
• Concerns how the way information is stored
• This affects the way that the long-term memory eventually retrieves it

Retrieval
• Getting stored information out of storage


MULTI-STORE MODEL OF MEMORY (ATKINSON & SHIFFRIN, 1968)

• States that memory is a flow of information through a three-stage memory system
• Information flows from sensory memory to short-term memory through attention via rehearsal
• Information flows from short-term memory to long-term memory and back through encoding and
retrieval
• Maintenance rehearsal describes the process of maintaining information in the short-term memory
through continued rehearsal




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, 4PAHPBIO Psychology and the Brain Week 6
Psychology BSc Year 1 Memory

CLASSIFICATION BY DURATION




Sensory Memory
• Processes information first from initial sensations of environmental stimuli
• Lasts a brief period of time (from fractions of a second to a few seconds)
o It is often experienced as a brief moment where sensory experiences can be retained
slightly longer than they actually last

Duration
• Sperling (1960) found that although sensory memory can register most information that reaches
sensory receptors, it decays quickly

Short-Term (Working) Memory
• A small fraction of information passes from sensory memory to short-term memory
o This is information that is meaningful or salient enough
• Lasts from 20-30 seconds (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)
o The length that something stays in the short-term memory can be increased through
rehearsal
• Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) suggest that information will move to the long-term memory if it is
attended to
o Peterson and Peterson (1959) found that if participants were distracted after a number
memory task, they could not recall the numbers as they were unable to attend to the
information during the attention period

Encoding
• Memory is usually encoded as acoustic in the short-term memory via rehearsal

Storage (Chunking)
• Most adults store 5-9 items (chunks) in short-term memory (Miller, 1956)
• We can chunk information together to increase the capacity within the short-term memory
o Miller suggests that there is a capacity limit to the number of chunks of information that can
be stored
o However, there is no limit to the amount of information in each chunk

Retrieval
• Usually stored and retrieved sequentially
o Information is generally recalled in the order that it is obtained



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