Memory

Memory

1. Duration

   • how long memory lasts before its lost
     • STM study: random word study found 90% remebered at 3 sec interval but only 2% remebered at a 18 sec interval
       • duration is very brief when rehearsal is prevented, up to 30 sec
     • LTM study: the yearbook study found after 48 years people could still match 70% of names to the correct photograph
       • duration is unlimited, can be up to a lifetime

2. Capacity

   • how much information can be held
     • STM study: the digit span test shows how many digits you can remember, Jacobs found that the average was 9.3 items
       • Miller then found that we can remember 7+-2 chunks of information
         • capacity is limited
     • LTM capacity is unlimited

3. Coding

   • how information is stored
     • STM: acoustic (sounds)
     • LTM: semantic (meanings)
     • Found by Baddeley

4. Long Term

   • Episodic
     • personal memories of events, include contextual detail and emotional tone
     • HIPPOCAMPUS
   • Semantic
     • shared facts and knowledge, concrete
     • TEMPORAL LOBE
   • Procedural
     • memory of how to do things, automatic and acquired through practice
     • CEREBELLUM
     • (implicit) non-declarative - memories that arent consciously recalled
   • Case study: Clive Wearing
     • could remember how to be a musician and recognises his second wife but couldnt remember detail about his children
       • semanic memory/ temporal lobe was damaged but not procedural/cerebellum