PSY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Iconic Memory, Echoic Memory, Long-Term Memory
11 May 2018
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Chapter 7: Memory
Structure of memory
− three-memory model - assumptions most researchers hold about the structure of
memory and the relationships between its features
− the three memory stages are not viewed as anatomical structures in the brain, but rather as
functionally distinct types of memory
− model classifies each memory store according to
• span (i.e., how much information it can hold)
• duration (i.e., how long it can hold that information)
1. sensory memory: stores a lot of information but for very brief periods due to
constant updating
• briefly holds sensory information (sights, sounds, etc.) after the stimulation is
over
• rapidly and continuously being ‘refreshed” by new sensory information
• iconic memory: visual sensory memory
• echoic memory: auditory sensory memory
➔ Sperling’s classic 1960 partial report task looked at span and duration for iconic
memory
- Whole report condition: average 4.5 of 12 letters recalled
Why: two possibilities
1. participants only saw on average 4.5 letters
2. saw most or all the letters but sensory memory faded rapidly
- partial report condition- average 3.3 of 4 letters (82%) in row recalled
- since position of cue was unknown, mush has seen ~82% of whole
display (i.e. #2 is correct)
− in order for sensory information to enter STM from sensory memory, it must be attended
− attention: involves selectively focusing on certain details of a stimulus and “filtering
out” others.
2. short term memory (STM) can store limited amounts of information for an
indefinite amount of time
o but in order for information to stay in STM, it must be rehearsed
• without rehearsal, STM can only hole info for a few seconds
- remember the following set of three letters while you count backward
in your head by 3s from 100 (Brown& Peterson, 1595) C, L, X
- after about 10-15 seconds of being presented from rehearsing, Brown
& Peterson’s participants could not remember.
• Why happened? Memory ross from short-term memory should be a decay
or interference.
Maybe decay-. Fading of memory over time
Maybe interference-> new information or confusion with other memories
- Proactive interference: old info interferes with new
- Retroactive interference: new info interferes with old
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Miller (1956) showed that capacity of STM is about 7 items, plus or minus two ("Magic
Number"). Our short-term memory is extremely limited.
o chunking can increase capacity to 20 or more items
• chunking: a short –term memory strategy that involves mentally
rearranging many pieces of information into a familiar and meaningful
pattern; a single chunk can represent a wealth of information
- Chase and Simon (1973) had master (>10,000+ of practice) and
beginner (< 100 hours) chess players recall positions of chess pieces
- When pieces were in real game positions, that master recalled 16/24
pieces; the novice recalled 4/24
- When pieces were in random positions, there was no advantage for the
master
- In real game positions, pieces formed familiar patters (chunks) for the
master.
o Chunking increase the span f short-term memory.
o Rehearsal extends the duration of information in short-term memory.
• Rehearsal is repeating the information mentally or even out loud.
- maintenance rehearsal: Rehearsal that involves repetition without
any consideration of meaning or making connections to other material
- works fine as long as you are not distracted
- elaborative rehearsal: Rehearsal that involves thinking about the
meaning of an item to remembered or making connections between
that item and prior knowledge
- can be more effective for getting information from STM to LTM
o Depth of processing model is a similar idea
• Level of processing: depth of transforming information, which influences
how well we remember it.
- Has been studied extensively in the context of remembering verbal
material
- We can rehearse a word based on how it looks on the page, what the
word means, etc.
- Craik and Tulving (1975) showed that deeper levels of processing,
especially semantic processing, tend to produce more enduring long-
term memories
- Study pahse: presented participants with 60 words and a particular
rehearsal strategy
• Three level of processing of verbal information: visual processing,
phonological (sound-related), and semantic (meaning-related).
Three different rehearse strategy.
Level
Type of encoding
Example
Shallow
Visual; based on physical properties of
the word
Is the word in capital
letters?
Intermediate
Phonological encoding: based on how
the word sounds
does the word rhyme with
“cat”?
deep
Semantic encoding: based on the
meaning of the word
Does the word fit in this
sentence?
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“ he met a ____ on street
- evidence suggests deep (semantic) > intermediate (phonemic) >
shallow (structural)
- however, we tend to rely on intermediate (phonemic)
• e.g.1. when someone tells you their phone number, what do you do until
you can type it into your phone?
• E.g.2. remember this set of letters B, X, R, C, L
• If you misremember one of the letters, you are likely to 9wrongly)
remember another letter that sounds like it
e.g. misremembering C as a T or a P-> this show that the original visual
stimulus has been translated or recoded in STM
-> Words (whether presented visually or aurally) are typically stored
acoustically (e.g.by how it sounds) in STM
-> our concept of STM has changed over time
-> this change involved a recognition that STM is not just a storage for
information
o working memory (WM): information can be both stored and manipulated at the
same time
• e.g. calculating 17*24 in your head
• e.g. 2 WM often studied in the lab using the n-back task
• e.g. for n=2, must remember what the stimulus was two trials ago but also
compare with current and update that
3. long term memory (LTM) stores large amounts of information for very long periods
of time and maybe permanently
o hyperthymestic syndrome: condition of possessing an extremely detailed memory
of ones’ life
- video: explain about Jill pi
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