MEMORY
Revision booklet
, MEMORY
KEY WORDS
CAPACITY- a measure of how much can be held in memory, represented
in terms of ‘bits of info’ such as number of digits
CODING- the way info is changed so that it can be stored in memory.
Info enters the brain via the senses (e.g. eyes or ears) then stored in
various forms- e.g. visual codes (photo), acoustic codes (sound) or
semantic codes (meaning of the experience).
DURATION- measure of how long a memory lasts before it’s no longer
available to access
LONG TERM MEMORY (LTM)- your memory for events that has
happened in the past, this last between 2 minutes to 100 years. LTM
has potentially unlimited duration and capacity and tends to be coded
semantically
SHORT TERM MEMORY (STM)- memory for immediate events, STM is
measured in seconds and minutes (rather than hours and days like
LTM). They disappear unless they are rehearsed. STM has limited
capacity of around 4 items/chunks, tends to be coded acoustically, STM
sometimes referred to as working memory.
AO3 EVALUATION POINTS.
- STM may not be exclusively acoustic (some experiments -e.g.
Wickens results was semantic is used, e.g. Brandimote results was
visual)
- STM forgetting results could be due to displacement, not
forgetting
- Testing STM is artificial
- The size of the “chunk” matters
Revision booklet
, MEMORY
KEY WORDS
CAPACITY- a measure of how much can be held in memory, represented
in terms of ‘bits of info’ such as number of digits
CODING- the way info is changed so that it can be stored in memory.
Info enters the brain via the senses (e.g. eyes or ears) then stored in
various forms- e.g. visual codes (photo), acoustic codes (sound) or
semantic codes (meaning of the experience).
DURATION- measure of how long a memory lasts before it’s no longer
available to access
LONG TERM MEMORY (LTM)- your memory for events that has
happened in the past, this last between 2 minutes to 100 years. LTM
has potentially unlimited duration and capacity and tends to be coded
semantically
SHORT TERM MEMORY (STM)- memory for immediate events, STM is
measured in seconds and minutes (rather than hours and days like
LTM). They disappear unless they are rehearsed. STM has limited
capacity of around 4 items/chunks, tends to be coded acoustically, STM
sometimes referred to as working memory.
AO3 EVALUATION POINTS.
- STM may not be exclusively acoustic (some experiments -e.g.
Wickens results was semantic is used, e.g. Brandimote results was
visual)
- STM forgetting results could be due to displacement, not
forgetting
- Testing STM is artificial
- The size of the “chunk” matters
