Memory Storage Systems Lecture

Flashcards covering the storage systems of memory, including sensory, short-term, working, and long-term memory, as well as organizational strategies like chunking and schemas.

Sensory memory

A storage system that preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief moment in time, usually only a fraction of a second.

Visual sensory memory duration

Traces in this sensory sub-system typically decay within a quarter of a second ($1/4\,\text{second}$).

Auditory sensory memory duration

Traces in this sensory sub-system typically decay in a short period of time lasting less than $1\,\text{second}$.

Short-term memory

A limited capacity storage area that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to about $20\,\text{seconds}$.

Rehearsal

The process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about information to maintain it and elaborate on it within memory.

Decay

The term used to describe the loss of information from a memory store when it is not rehearsed or elaborated upon.

Short-term memory capacity

The volume of information this store can hold, which is generally described as plus or minus $7$ or $4$ items.

Chunking

The process of grouping familiar stimuli into a single unit based on familiarity or complexity to increase the capacity of short-term memory.

Working memory

A limited capacity storage system housed within short-term memory that temporally maintains and stores information, providing an interface between perceptions, memory, and actions.

Phonological loop

A component of working memory that involves recitation and sounding out words using language to rehearse information.

Visuospatial sketchpad

A component of working memory that holds and manipulates images or visual representations of information.

Central executive system

The component of working memory that coordinates attention and the different sub-components, acting like an operating system.

Episodic buffer

A component of working memory that serves as an interface between working memory and long-term memory.

Long-term memory

A storage system believed to have unlimited capacity that can hold information for lengthy periods of time.

Flashbulb memories

Unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events, such as the Bay of Pigs, the death of Prince or Lady Di, or $911$, which often enter long-term memory with little rehearsal.

Clustering

The tendency to remember similar or related items in groupings based on semantic meanings or sounds.

Conceptual hierarchies

Multi-level classification systems based on common properties among items that help organize information for preservation in memory.

Schema

A mental representation or knowledge cluster used to organize and structure information.

Semantic network

A system for storing information consisting of nodes representing concepts joined together by pathways that link related concepts.

Spreading activation

The process that occurs within a semantic network where triggering one concept activates or lights up a network of related concepts.