CHAPTER 9
BASIC COMPONENTS OF MEMORY
Learning a piece of information at one point in time does not guarantee that
you will remember it later on.
Many variables determine what information get into memory in the first place
and what information stays there long enough for you to recall it when you need it.
Memory theorists make a distinction between learning and Memory. They also refer frequently to the process of Storage, encoding, and retrieval.
LEARNING VERSUS MEMORY
Learning is viewed, quite simply, as the acquisition of new information. Learning involves a relatively permanent change in mental associations due to experience.
Memory is related to the ability to recall information that has previously
been learned.
The distinction between learning and memory is important because not everything
that is learned is necessarily remembered over the long run.
Storage is the process of putting new information in memory.
Encoding as people store information in memory, they often modify it in some
way; this process of encoding often helps people store information. Example
I have a combination lock for which
the first two set of numbers are 22 and 8. I quickly learn the two numbers by
encoding them as the day and month of my birthday.
Retrieval is the process by which people find information they have
previously stored in memory so they can use it again.
A DUAL-STORE MODEL OF MEMORY
Memory theorists such as William James, Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin
propose that human memory has three components:
Sensory register
Short term memory
Long term memory
Information first enters the sensory register, where it is held for a very
short time (a few second at most).
If the information is processed in a particular way, it moves on to short-term
memory.
Information is held in short-term memory for a minute or less, however, it
must be processed further if it is to move on to long term memory.
Lets look further at the Dual Storage Model:
SENSORY REGISTER
The first component of the dual store model, the Sensory register (also called
sensory memory) holds incoming information long enough for you to decide if it should be passed on.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SENSORY REGISTER
Capacity. The capacity of the sensory register, as far as psychologists can
tell is unlimited.
Form of Storage. Information is
stored in the sensory register basically in the form in which it was sensed, that is visual information is stored in a visual
compartment; auditory in put is stored in an auditory compartment.
At this point, information has not yet been understood or interpreted by the
individual. In other words, the register holds information before it is processed.
DURATION
Information remains in the sensory register for only a very brief time, but
measuring the exact duration is difficult. Why?
One problem in studying the characteristics of information in the sensory register is that when you ask people to think
about or otherwise process something that theyve stored there, the information automatically moves on to working memory and
so is no longer in the place where we want to study it.
MOVING INFORMATION ON TO WORKING MEMORY: THE ROLE OF ATTENTION
If you want to want move information from the sensory register into working
memory, it appears that, at least in most cases, we must pay attention to it.
One reason that people dont remember something that theyve seen or heard, previously,
is that they never really paid attention to it. For example:
If you are sitting in class with your mind a thousand miles away from the professors
lecture, you might say that you forgot what the instructor said or that you never heard it in the first place. The reality of the situation is somewhere in between, the lecture reached your sensory register but was
not sufficiently processed to move on to working memory.
FACTORS INFLUENCING ATTENTION
Certain kinds of information tend to draw attention, whereas other kinds do
not. The following are some important factors affecting what people pay attention
to and therefore what they store in working memory.
Size
Intensity
Novelty
Incongruity
Emotion
Personal Significance
Lets look at these factors individually:
Size
Which of the following letters first draw your eye?
A B C D E F G
You probably noticed the B and E before the other letters because of their
larger size. Attention tends to be drawn to large objects, a fact that newspaper
publishers employ when they typeset front page headlines in larger
letters and that advertisers use when they put potentially unimportant information in fine print.
Intensity
Bright colors and loud noises attract attention. Teachers speak louder than usualBE QUIET when they want to get their students attention.
Novelty
Unusual in some way tend to draw peoples attention:
Incongruity
Objects that are incongruous . those that dont make sense within their context
tend to capture peoples attention. For example
I took
a walk to the rabbit this morning.
Did you spend more time looking at the word rabbit than at the other words? If so, it may have been because rabbit does not make much sense within the
context of the sentence.
Emotion
A nude body flashing through a crowded room usually draws the attention of
just about everyone present. Words such as blood
and murder also are attention getters because of their emotional overtones.
Personal Significance
Individuals tend to pay attention to things that are important to them at a
given point in time. When a student sits in front of a television set with an
open textbook, the stimulus that the student attends to, the television of the book depends in large part on which stimulus
is more closely related to the students motives at that particular time.
If the textbook is interesting or if an important examination is scheduled
for the next day, the student will attend to the book. But if a popular situation
comedy or a cliff-hanging soap opera is on, or if the textbook is dry and uninteresting, the student may very well forget
that the text is even in the same room!
ATTENTION AS A LIMITED CAPACITY
Life would be simpler if people didnt have to choose certain stimuli to pay
attention to but could instead attend to everything that they record in their sensory
registers. Unfortunately, it turns out that people are incapable of attending
to everything at once. For example, at first glance, what do you see in the picture below:
But if you look at the black spacers on either side of the gobbler, you should
also be able to see two silhouettes (Peter and Paul) staring at each other. Now try this, see if you can focus on both the
goblet and the two silhouettes at exactly the same time. Most people cant.
The Peter Paul gobbler illustrates a phenomenon that early Gestalt psychologists
called figure ground.
WORKING MEMORY
Atkinson and Shiffrin used the term short term memory ( also called working
memory) to refer to a storage mechanism that holds information for a brief time after it is attended to so that it can be
mentally processed.
Other Characteristic of working memory that you should become familiar with
are
Capacity (limited)
Form of Storage (mostly auditory)
Duration (short term)
LONG TERM MEMORY
Long term memory is the part of the memory system that retains information
for a relatively long period of time. Some things stored in long term memory
may be easily retrieved, whereas others, even though it may effect our behavior, may be more difficult or even impossible
to bring into conscious awareness.
Long term memory is clearly the most complex component of the human memory
system. As such, it has been studied more extensively than either the sensory
register or working memory.
CHARACTRISTICS OF LONG TERM MEMORY
Capacity ( As far as theorists can determine, the capacity is unlimited)
Form of Storage ( Visual information is stored in one way and language information
may be stored in another way. However, most psychologist agree that the bulk of information is stored semantically, that is, in terms of meaning. Individuals rarely remember everything word for word but in bits and
pieces.
Duration (Theorists disagree regarding the duration of long term memory, some
believe that information, once stored in long term memory, remains there permanently.
Others, however, believe that information can disappear from long term memory through a variety of forgetting processes.
GENERALIZATIONS ABOUT MEMORY AND THEIR EDUCATIONAL
IMPLICATIONS
Clearly, not all theorists agree about exactly how memory is structured or
how it functions. But regardless of how we conceptualize the human memory system,
there are several things we can conclude about how memory operates. Lets make
a few generalizations and consider their implications for educational practices.
- Attention is essential for learning: Attention is critical for long
term retention of information. People will not learn the things that they dont
process in some way, and paying attention is the first step that they must take.
- Different people may attend differently to the same stimulus:
- People can process only a limited amount of information at a time:
- Memory is selective (Because most people receive more information than they can process and remember, they must
continually make choices about what things to focus on and what things to ignore).
- The limited capacity of working memory is not necessarily a bad thing: (the working memory bottleneck forces learners
to condense, organize, and synthesize the information they receive).
SUMMARY
Memory theorists use some terminology that is uniquely
their own. Storage means putting information in memory, encoding involves changing
information to store it more effectively, and retrieval is the process of finding information already stored in memory.
Attention capacity is limited. People usually cannot pay
attention to more than one demanding task at any given time.
Information goes through the following process:
1st Sensory Register (very few seconds)
2nd Working Memory (5 to 20 seconds, unless it is processed)
3rd Long term
Memory (has the capacity to hold information for a long period of time, however, there is much disagreement among theorist
as to how long information can be retained).
