2.0 memory INITIAL THEORETICAL MODELS

INITIAL THEORETICAL MODELS

The initial theoretical models of memory

• Ebbinghaus

• Barlett, Hebb

Structural models

• Broadbent

• Atkinson

• Shiffrin

Functional models

Craik & Lockhart

Dicotomys

• Explicit vs Implicit.

• Neuromodular model.

system

• Group of elements that interact with each other to obtain a result or objective.

Examples of systems

• Nature systems (the cycle of water)

• Artificial systems (created by humans)

• Psychological systems (memory, attention)

Hippocampus

• essential for storing episodic memory to long term

Memory is understood

• A system with different elements that interact with each other to obtain a result

• (to encode, store and retrieve information).

Model

• A simplified representation or explanation of a system.

A model tries to

• define & emphasize the main elements of a system and their functioning

Memory models try to explain the memory system

✓ Structural models

✓ Functional models

Dual model was proposed by

• William James

Dual model → memory is composed of

• Primary memory

• Secondary memory

Primary memory 

• Inmediate memory → conscious & with a short duration.

Secondary memory

Long-term duration → permanent but less accesible.

Information-processing Approach

• Human mind worked as a computer program

• information is stored in the states or representations of the system to be retrieved and manipulated later

• memory system requires

• The capacity to encode, or enter information into the system.

• The capacity to store it.

• The capacity to find & retrieve it.

Structural memory models try to examine

• structure of memory

• Memory is not unitary

• Different structures (“boxes”, “stores”) with different functions

DONALD BROADBENT developed

• FILTER MODEL OF ATTENTION

THE FILTER MODEL OF ATTENTION

Attention according to Broadbent

• A mental filter

• Everything reaches to the brain (perception), but only a small part goes through the filter, thus we remember only the small amount of information.

Senso-perceptive processes involve

• Different brain areas (auditory, visual, etc.)

Dark blue area

Primary somatosensory area

Light blue area

• Secondary somatosensory area

Dark green area

Primary auditory area

Light green area

Secondary auditory area

Light yellow area

Secondary visual area

Dark yellow area

Primary visual area

Process of filter model attention

• Senses → Buffer (shirt term store) → selective filter → selected input for attention.

SENSES

The sensorial information is processed in parallel by our senso-perceptive systems.

BUFFER

• It stores the sensorial information for a very short amount of time (PERCEPTION).

SELECTIVE FILTER

• It allows or denies information to be attended (ATTENTION).

• This filter focusses on physical characteristics of information (not meanings).

Selected input for attention

• We are only aware of what goes beyond the filter.

THE MODAL MODEL proposed by

• ATKINSON & SHIFFRIN

THE MODAL MODEL process

• Environment → sensory memory → Short-term memory → Long-term memory

Modal model represents

• many similar models

Modal model establishes the distinctions between 3 types of memory

• Sensory Memory

• Short-term Memory

• Long-term Memory

Modal model assumes that information

• flows simply from left to right

SENSORY MEMORY

• Very brief (1/2 to ¼ of a second) storage of information within a specific modality (auditory, visual…).

• Represents the initial senso-perceptive process of information.

• The information is processed in parallel.

Sensory memory in the Broadbent model

Buffer

SENSORY MEMORY can be

• Iconic memory

• Echoic memory

Iconic memory

• A term applied to the brief storage of visual information.

• “Visual sensory memory”

Echoic memory

• A term applied to the brief storage of auditory information.

• “Auditory sensory memory”

THE MODAL MODEL explains the brain processes

• More information than you can attend

→ from the data processed by the brain areas, you can attend and declare only part of that information

• Only the stimuli attended go to the short-term memory store 

→ we are conscious of that information

Then, the processing goes from being parallel to being serial

→ one stimulus each time

SHORT-TERM MEMORY in the In the Broadbent model

Filter

• rehearsal

SHORT-TERM MEMORY

• Limited capacity (7+/- 2 elements) & duration (forgetting: after 30 seconds).

• The information fades quickly, but not as much as sensory memory does.

• The longer the information is held in short-term memory, the better the learning.

• Rehearsal (rehearsal loop)

• Rehearsal

• A process through which I maintain the information in the short-term memory longer.

LONG-TERM MEMORY

• The information goes from short-term to long-term memory

• It has an unknown capacity & a lifetime duration.

• Involved in retrieval

• Posterior authors differentiated between different kinds of long-term memories (declarative, procedural, etc.).

• When I remember the information previously learned

• Retrieval

• That information goes from the long-term memory to the short-term memory (we are aware of that information again

Storage

Information goes from short-term to long-term memory

In the MODAL MODEL the STORES are

• → “the boxes”

• are fixed but the processes are dynamic

Working memory concept

• An extension of the short-term memory concept

HOTEL METAPHOR

• The flow of people & information between the rooms represents memory processes!

Encoding

• The perceptual processing of information & its processing in the short-term memory (attention).

Encoding is a key process in

Perception & attention.

Storage

• Is the generation of a memory trace in long-term memory.

Retrieval

• Is the transfer of information from long-term to short-term memory (we attend to that information again).

Different tyopes of retrieval

Free retrieval → retrieval with clues → recognition tasks

According to the modal model, a crucial strategy for storing information in long-term memory is

• Is holding it in short-term memory (the longer the information is held in short-term memory, the better the learning)