5. Memory (PSY107)

5. Memory (PSY107)

1. An information-processing system that encodes, stores, and retrieves information

2. Traditional Theory of Memory

   • Sensory Memory
     • A short-term sensory buffer which receives stimulus information via the five senses
     • Preserves brief sensory impressions of stimuli
   • Short-term Memory
     • Working Memory
     • Most limited in capacity
     • Preserves recently perceived events or experiences for less than a minute without rehearsal
     • Important information needs to be retained is rehearsed
       • To hold the information long enough before it gets transferred to LTM
       • Repeated over and over again
   • Long-term Memory
     • The largest capacity and longest duration
     • Stores material organised according to meaning
     • Procedural Memory
       • Motor Skills
       • Operant Conditioning
       • Classical Conditioning
       • A division of LTM that stores memories for how things are done
     • Declarative memory
       • A division of LTM that stores explicit information
       • Semantic Memory
         • A subdivision of declarative memory that stores general knowledge, including the meanings of words and concepts
         • Language
         • Facts
         • General Knowledge
         • Concepts
       • Episodic Memory
         • A subdivision of declarative memory that stores personal events or "episodes"
         • Events
         • Personal Experiences
   • Modal Model of Memory

3. Working Memory Model

   • Baddeley and Hitch's
   • Central Executive
     • Directs attention to important input from both sensory memory and LTM and interfaces with the brain's voluntary (conscious) response system
   • Visuospatial Sketchpad
     • Encodes visual images and mental representations of objects in space
   • Phonological Loop
     • Acoustic Encoding
       • The conversation of information especially semantic information to sound patterns in the working memory
   • Episodic Buffer
     • Bind the various pieces of information in working memory into a coherent episode

4. Levels-of-processing theory

   • The explanation for the fact that information is more thoroughly connected to meaningful items in long-term memory (more deeply processed) will be remembered better

5. Theories of Forgetting

   • Memory Trace Decay Theory

6. Implicit Memory

   • A memory that was not deliberately learned or of which you have no conscious awareness

7. Explicit Memory

   • Memory that has been processed with attention and can be consciously recalled