BESC1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Richard Shiffrin, Sensory Memory, Explicit Memory
25 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Cognition
Memory, Language, Thinking and Intelligence
Memory
Memory
The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage and retrieval of
information
Organisation, storage and retrieval of information
Three types of Memory
• Encoding – The processing of information into the memory systems – for example, by extracting
meaning
• Storage – The process of retaining encoded information overtime
• Retrieval – The process of getting information out of memory storage
Measuring Retention
• Recall – retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was
learned at an earlier time. A fill-in-the-blank question tests your recall
• Recognition – identifying items previously learned. A multiple-choice question tests your
recognition
• Relearning – Learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time. When
you study for a final exam or engage a language used in early childhood, you will relearn the
material more easily than you did initially.
Information Processing Model
Getting information into our brain – encoding
Retain that information – storage
Later get that information back out – retrieval
To explain our memory-forming process, Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968) proposed
a three-stage model:
1. We first record to-be-remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory
2. From there, we process information into short-term memory, where we encode it through
rehearsal
3. Finally, information moves into long-term memory for later retrieval
Sensory Memory
• Less than 5 seconds (memory retained very briefly)
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