Memory

Memory

1. Atkinson and Shiffrin

   • Multi-store model of memory

2. Sensory Register

   • Coding
     • Research:
       • Crowder - SR only retains info in the iconic store for a few milliseconds but 2-3 seconds in the echoic store. (supports idea of of sensory info being encoded into different sensory stores).
     • Evalution:
       • After-images of visual events provide good evidence of sensory memories. The light trail produced by a moving light stick was noted as early as 1740 such as phenomena led to early experiments into the SR in the 1960's.
   • Capacity
     • Research:
       • Sperling - flashed a 3x4 grid of letters onto a screen 1/20 of a second, and asked ppts to recall the letters of one row. As the info would fade quickly he sounded different tones to indicate which row had to be recalled. Recall in the indicated row was high which suggests that all the info was originally there, indicating the capacity for SR is quite large.
       • Javitt et al - reported a biological basis to SR capacity of iconic and echoic stores was found to be related to efficiency of the nervous system, which suggests individual differences in SR capacity
     • Evalutaion
       • Calculating capacity of SR involves evaluating cues that suggests a change in random wave patterns. These only provide estimates of capacity and are highly artificial in nature thus lacking mundane realism.
   • Duration
     • Research:
       • Walsh and Thompson- found that the iconic sensory store has an average duration of 500 milliseconds which decreases with age. This suggests that duration of sensory memory is limited and dependent of age.
     • Evalution:
       • The brief duration of sensory memories is seen as due to their physical traces (engrams) fading quickly. This suggests a biological explanation for duration of info in the SR

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