Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory Systems

Vocabulary flashcards covering sensory, short-term, and long-term memory concepts, experimental paradigms, paradigms like Sperling and Brown-Peterson, and neurological evidence from Patient K.F.

Encoding

The stage of memory involving the transformation of what we perceive, think, or feel into an internal memory representation.

Storage

The stage of memory focused on maintaining and organizing information over time across different memory systems.

Retrieval

The process of bringing previously encoded and stored information back into conscious mind.

Sensory Memory

A memory system that holds a brief, complete physical copy of sensory input before it fades or transfers to short-term memory.

Iconic Memory

A fast-decaying store of visual sensory input that retains an accurate visual copy for less than $400\,\text{ms}$.

Echoic Memory

A fast-decaying store of auditory sensory information that retains a complete sound record for approximately $3\,\text{seconds}$.

Sperling (1960) Partial Report Experiment

An experimental task demonstrating that iconic memory holds nearly all visual input initially, as participants recalled full rows when cued by a pitch tone immediately after a $50\,\text{ms}$ grid display.

Precategorial Nature of Iconic Memory

The characteristic of iconic memory where information is stored strictly by physical features (like location or color) rather than high-level semantic categories (like letters vs. numbers).

Short-Term Memory (STM)

The memory system containing the contents of current consciousness, lasting less than $30\,\text{seconds}$ without rehearsal and having a limited capacity.

Brown-Peterson Paradigm

An experimental procedure demonstrating that short-term memory duration drops rapidly over $15\text{--}30\,\text{seconds}$ when distractor counting prevents rehearsal.

Maintenance Rehearsal

The process of continually repeating information to oneself to maintain it in short-term memory and prevent decay.

Serial Position Curve

A U-shaped graph demonstrating that recall accuracy is higher for items at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list compared to the middle.

Primacy Effect

The tendency for items early in a list to be recalled better because they receive more rehearsal and are accessible in long-term memory.

Recency Effect

The tendency for the last few items in a list to be recalled best because they are still present in short-term memory during testing.

Delay Effect on Recency

The finding that introducing a $10\text{--}30\,\text{second}$ filled delay prior to recall eliminates the recency effect while leaving the primacy effect unaffected.

Phonological Code

An acoustic/sound-based format used by short-term memory for verbal information, as evidenced by reduced recall for phonologically similar word lists in Baddeley's research.

Semantic Code

A meaning-based format primarily used by long-term memory for storing verbal information.

Gateway Idea

The traditional 1970s Modal Model proposition that information must pass directly through short-term memory to enter long-term memory.

Patient K.F.

A neuro-psychological patient studied by Warrington and Shallice (1972) who showed severely impaired auditory short-term memory but normal long-term memory, contradicting the strict gateway hypothesis.

Modern View of Memory

An updated memory framework that incorporates bidirectional encoding and retrieval pathways between STM and LTM, along with a consolidation process that stabilizes long-term stores.

Chunking

The cognitive process of organizing individual items into larger, meaningful units to increase the effective capacity of short-term memory.