FRHD 2060 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Sensory Memory, Visual Search, Information Age

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Family Relations and Human Development
• Course: FRHD 2060
• Professor: Gillian Joseph

Document Summary

Poses three fundamental for adult development and aging: Earliest step in information processing, sensory memory, where new, incoming information is first registered. Takes in very large amounts of info very rapidly. Like a very brief & almost identical representation of the stimuli that exist. Representation exists in your mind in the absence of the stimuli. But, if we don"t pay attention to this info very quickly, the representation is lost. Age differences in the sensory memory aren"t common. Involves at least 3 interdependent processes: selective attention, divided attention, sustained attention. Selective attention: the way in which we choose the info we will process further. Some info just processed automatically, other info takes effort. We are more likely to process novel or unexpected info than info that we have encountered many times before. Small proportion of info in sensory memory is selected for further processing.