SOC 505 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Iconic Memory, Sensory Memory, Semantic Memory
28 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
The brain is a powerful computer with separate types of memory in different brain structures. Differ in terms of span and duration. Moves from sensory to stm to ltm and then back to stm. Memory system that retains information for limited duration. We can lose information in our stm due to two different processes: Decay: information disappears through passage of time. Interference: loss of info due to competition of interacted information. Retroactive interference: when learning new info hampers something previously learned. Proactive interference: when earlier learning gets in the way of learning something new. Both are likely to occur when old and new stimuli are. The span of stm in adults is 7 +/- 2 pieces of info. Can expand our stm span by using chunking. Rehearsal, repeating info in stm, extends the duration of it. Elaborative rehearsal: thinking about a word to understand it and memorize it. Elaborative is usually effective, consistent with levels of processing model.
