Human Memory Processes and Models

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering definitions, key models, researchers, and stages of human memory processing from the lecture.

Memory (Textbook Definition)

The set of processes used to encode, store, and retrieve information over different periods of time.

Memory (Professor's Definition)

Learning and retrieving information.

Information-Processing Model

A framework that compares human memory to computer operations, consisting of input (information taken into the brain), storage (processing, analyzing, and storing information until use), and retrieval (using information as the basis of behaviors and interactions).

Sensory Memory

The initial stage of memory that briefly registers everything seen, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled, lasting only $\frac{1}{2}$ to $2\,\text{seconds}$.

George Sperling (1960)

A researcher who demonstrated sensory memory by flashing letter arrays for $\frac{1}{20}$ of a second; participants recalled only about half the letters, but achieved near-perfect accuracy when cued to recall a specific row immediately after display offset.

Attention

The cognitive mechanism required to transfer information from sensory memory into working or short-term memory.

Magical Number Seven (George Miller, 1956)

The capacity limit of short-term memory stating that people can store approximately seven bits of information, plus or minus two ($7 \pm 2$).

Cohen (2010)

A researcher who determined that the capacity of short-term memory is 4 bits of information, plus or minus one ($4 \pm 1$).

Working Memory (Alan Baddeley, 2002)

The system containing visual and auditory information currently being heard, seen, and actively thought about.

Central Executive

The component in Alan Baddeley's model of working memory that directs focus and tells the brain what to focus on, keep track of, and remember.

Maintenance Rehearsal

The cognitive process of mentally repeating information to keep it active within working or short-term memory.

Encoding

The process of putting information into a storable form and integrating it into the memory system, such as by applying it to life or expanding upon it using examples, acronyms, or songs.

Storage

The second stage of the memory process, defined as preserving encoded material in memory until needed.

Retrieval

The memory process of accessing stored information to use as a basis for behaviors and interactions.

Model of Human Memory (Attkinson and Shiffrin, 1968)

A structural model showing the pathway of memory where sensory input enters sensory memory, moves via attention to working or short-term memory, and is transferred to long-term memory via encoding (or retrieved back), with information lost if unmaintained.