Short term memory

Sensory memory and the evidence supporting its existence and characteristics

refers to the brief, automatic storage of sensory information from the environment, lasting only a fraction of a second, which allows the brain to process and perceive incoming stimuli before it fades away

Atkinson and Shiffrin modal model of memory

:memory is made up of three distinct stores: sensory register, short-term memory, and long-term memory. 

How the model works

• Sensory register: Information enters the memory system through the sensory register. 

• Short-term memory: Information is received from the sensory register and the long-term store, and can be rehearsed. 

• Long-term memory: Information that has been rehearsed in the short-term store is transferred to the long-term store. 

Know the characteristics of short-term memory

• holds short capacity for short durations

• Concious

• Requires rehearsals to prevent forgetting

• Information that is “active'“ in STM may be externally presented or retrieved from long term memory

How does chunking help overcome the limits of short-term memory

• can overcome capacity limits by “chunking” data together

Proactive vs. retroactive interference

Proactive interference: when previously learned information interferes with learning current information, new passwords, new schedules

Retroactive Interference: new material interferes with recollection of old information

Understand decay vs interference accounts of forgetting

Decay: as time passes, information “fades away”

Interference:" additional information interferes with current information, gets in the way of remembering

Primacy and recency effects in memory, and why they occur

Know the Brown-Peterson study and what it demonstrates about short-term memory