Stages of Memory Lecture Notes Key: ^ means discuss before notes v means discuss after notes Stages of Memory

Sensory Memory Short-Term Memory Long-Term Memory sensory store STM I M U L A O N sensory store STM LTM attention rehearsal

Three Stages of Memory, Sect. 3 Sensory Memory - First Stage immediate, initial recording of sensory information • lasts .5 - 2 sec. • unlimited capacity A memory trace of a visual stimulus held in our sensory memory decays within a second. So if we want to remember it, we have to do something with the information very quickly. • Memory Trace - impression made on our senses that lasts for only a fraction of a second.

a. Iconic memory- …but faster! b. Echoic Memory- part of sensory memory that holds visual memories Is seen - then disappears rapidly - no more than a tenth of a sec. If I show you this…. your iconic memory does this… …but faster! b. Echoic Memory- momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

Memory that holds info briefly before it’s stored or forgotten 2. Short-Term Memory - Second Stage Memory that holds info briefly before it’s stored or forgotten • lasts about 18 seconds w/o rehearsal ^ If you pay attention to the images in your Sensory Memory, you can transfer that information to your SHORT TERM MEMORY. It is also called Working Memory. We use our short-term memory a lot. Whenever you are thinking about something, it is in your short-term memory. When you are trying to solve a math problem, the elements of the problem are in your short-term, or working memory. When you meet someone new, you put the person’s name in your short-term memory, may be by using the name or by repeating it to yourself several times. More so, When you are told a new phone number, you can keep it in short term memory by repeating it over and over. Repeating the number will give you time to look for a pen and paper. ---Info in short term memory begins to fade after several seconds. If you want to remember it longer, you need to keep rehearsing the information or take other steps to prevent it from fading. ^ Primacy Effect/Recency Effect - Chances are that when you are finished taking these notes, that if you can recall anything, it will be the first and last section of the notes, the middle will be more difficult to remember. These effects have names (CLICK)

Candle Store Chair Phone Bike Ball Outrageous Cat Book Milk Clock Shoe Gym Plant Basket Dog TV Closet ^ If you pay attention to the images in your Sensory Memory, you can transfer that information to your SHORT TERM MEMORY. It is also called Working Memory. We use our short-term memory a lot. Whenever you are thinking about something, it is in your short-term memory. When you are trying to solve a math problem, the elements of the problem are in your short-term, or working memory. When you meet someone new, you put the person’s name in your short-term memory, may be by using the name or by repeating it to yourself several times. More so, When you are told a new phone number, you can keep it in short term memory by repeating it over and over. Repeating the number will give you time to look for a pen and paper. ---Info in short term memory begins to fade after several seconds. If you want to remember it longer, you need to keep rehearsing the information or take other steps to prevent it from fading. ^ Primacy Effect/Recency Effect - Chances are that when you are finished taking these notes, that if you can recall anything, it will be the first and last section of the notes, the middle will be more difficult to remember. These effects have names (CLICK)

A. Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus found 2. Short-Term Memory - Second Stage Memory that holds info briefly before it’s stored or forgotten • lasts about 18 seconds w/o rehearsal A. Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus found 1. Primacy Effect - tendency to recall the initial items in a series 2. Recency Effect - tendency to recall the last item in a series ^ If you pay attention to the images in your Sensory Memory, you can transfer that information to your SHORT TERM MEMORY. It is also called Working Memory. We use our short-term memory a lot. Whenever you are thinking about something, it is in your short-term memory. When you are trying to solve a math problem, the elements of the problem are in your short-term, or working memory. When you meet someone new, you put the person’s name in your short-term memory, may be by using the name or by repeating it to yourself several times. More so, When you are told a new phone number, you can keep it in short term memory by repeating it over and over. Repeating the number will give you time to look for a pen and paper. ---Info in short term memory begins to fade after several seconds. If you want to remember it longer, you need to keep rehearsing the information or take other steps to prevent it from fading. ^ Primacy Effect/Recency Effect - Chances are that when you are finished taking these notes, that if you can recall anything, it will be the first and last section of the notes, the middle will be more difficult to remember. These effects have names (CLICK)

Short-Term Memory - Continued 3947659271 394 - 765 - 9271 ^ chunking - ________ repeat these 10 numbers after me, ready 3947659271 How about 39-47-65-92-71 or 394-765-9271? It is easier for us to remember these numbers this way because the information is chunked together in smaller units. (Click) Instead of 10 separate numbers, now we really only have four or five. This is called chunking. (Click) An experiment in 1956 found that the average person can hold a list of seven items in short-term memory. Which happens to be the number of digits in local telephone numbers. Like that shelf, our short term memory can only hold a limited amount of information at a time. Then interference happens. . .Click! B. Chunking - organizing of items into familiar or manageable units

Short-Term Memory - Continued C. Interference - process that occurs when new info appears in short-term memory & replaces what was already there Short term memory is like a shelf that holds only so much. Once a shelf is full, you cannot put something on it without shoving something else on it without shoving something else off. There was an experiment in 1959 using college students to prove this theory. Let’s try it in this class. I’m going to give you a group of three letters to remember. Don’t write them down. In about five seconds, I’m going to ask you to recall these letters. Ready - WTH. Wait 5 Seconds. Who remembers these letters. -Good. In the college experiment, nearly 110% of the students recalled the letters. Now how about this, I’m going to give another set of letters for you to remember. When I say the the letters, start counting backward from the number 142 by threes silently in your head. For example, if the number was 156, start with 156, 153, 150, 147 etc. I repeat silently. Ready, the letters are ZBT, now start counting from 142. Stop after 3 seconds. In college experiment about 1/2 of the students forgot. Continue counting (18 sec.) nearly all students forgot. 18 seconds seems to be the number of seconds most people can hold information in their short term memory. ---Short term memory is very useful. It allows us just enough time to find a way to store the information more permanently. Shor-term memory is the bridge between sensory memory and long-term memory.

• There is no limit to how much can be stored in our long-term memory. 3. Long-Term Memory 3rd stage type or stage of memory capable of large & relatively permanent storage. • There is no limit to how much can be stored in our long-term memory. The final stage is Long-Term. This is the big one. This contains more information than an encyclopedia or a computer’s hard-drive. It holds names, dates, places, the memory of how I was picked on in kindergarten, or the look on my father’s face when he found out I crashed my car in high school. It contains more words, pictures, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches than you can count. Information is constantly being transferred into you long term memory. BOOK - It is estimated that a person will have stored roughly five hundred times as much information as can be found in all the volumes of Encylopedia Britannica (Hunt 1982)