Short-Term Memory: The Second Stage in Memory Processing

foot to Psychology Psychology 101, Section 8 October 26, 2010 Short-Term retrospect The short-run retentiveness is the lead to our long lasting remembers. short-run entrepot is the atomic number 16 stage in the holding processing (Huffman). The short-run depot is the lead off of the computer memory that temporarily stores and processes info from the sensory memory and holds it until it decides if the education impart be sent to the third stage or long-run memory (Huffman). The short memory stores a mixture of perceptual analyses information (Huffman).The short-run memory works in protestent ways to increase its mild aptitude it uses rehearsal and hoard to be able to remember to a greater extent things at once (Huffman). Rehearsal is when a person repeats information oer and over again to allege it fresh in the memory and chunking is grouping separate pieces of information into a single group (Huffman). The short-term memory is also known as the working(a) memo ry because its always receiving information from the sensory memory and sending to the semipermanent memory (Huffman).I will be discussing the difference between short-term memory and long-term memory, the theory of decay, and the working memory. Difference The main difference between short-term memory and long-term memory is the mental ability that each champion has. correspond to Michael E. Martinez the two memories work together a cognitive architecture or the minds basic structure. In the short-term memory a person base only value of a few motifs at a time (Martinez). One of the characteristics of the short-term memory is that is small examine to the long-term memory which has a roundr capacity (Martinez).Information flows between the short-term memory to the long-term memory, depending on the direction and different kinds of thinking results (Martinez). Short-term memory is the route entry to long-term memory or the safekeeping template until the long-term memory proces ses ar complete (Lewis). One re cave inative the Martinez gives is when information flows from short-term memory into long-term memory it produces learning. When information leaves flows from long-term memory back to short-term memory is called recognition or recall, which happens whenever we think about a previously known fact, person, or event (Martinez).Each memory has its owe limitations the short-term memory has a small capacity making it hard to think about m whatever things at once, enchantment the long-term memory does not record experience completely and accurately (Martinez). Unlike the long-term memory the short-term memory has chunking, which allows the short-term memory to hold more and more information. The capacity does not change simply chunk grows in heterogeneousity which allows the short-term memory to handle more data (Martinez). DecayDecay is a theory that has a long history in accounting for forgetting (Berman, Jonides, and Lewis). This is said to happen be cause as time passes, information in the memory erodes and is less available for retrieval (Berman, Jonides, and Lewis). Berman, Jonides, and Lewis present different experiment to examine if decay is a cause of forgetting. One study that they present is the classic study of Peterson and Peterson (1959) Consider the classic study of Peterson and Peterson (1959), originally vox populi to provide strong evidence for decay.In this experiment, participants were given a letter trigram to store, followed by a holding interval that varied from 3 to 18 s. During the guardianship interval, participants were required to count backward by threes to prevent rehearsal of the memorandum. pastime the retention interval, participants recalled the item in memory. Peterson and Peterson found that performance declined as retention intervals increased, and the authors attributed this decline to increasing decay of the memory trace with increasing time.The ascription of this achievements to decay me chanism is, however, suspect. The arguments that counting backward could not be a source of interference because their secondary task differed from the item to be stored in memory (Berman, Jonides, and Lewis). But the case is that counting task requires short-term memory retention, which is the main memory task (Berman, Jonides, and Lewis). Another problem in assessing the role of decay on short-term memory is the habitual dip of do materials that are to retain (Berman, Jonides, and Lewis).An example that Berman, Jonides, Lewis give is when we look up a phone number in the directory and then walk to the phone, we rehearse the number in our head until it is dialed. They are trying to come up with different techniques to prevent rehearsal, to get an accurate gauge of whether decay has an effect on memory (Berman, Jonides, and Lewis). Working Memory Theory based inquiry has revealed that working memory is a system that allows a person to maintain task goals, update memory to meet c urrent demands, and to separate memory to form affinitys (Shelton, Matthews, Hill, and Gouvier).The working memory is also referred to a ecumenic design system that is responsible for the active task or goal pertinent information while simultaneously processing other information (Unsworth, Spillers, and Brewer). The general purpose system includes problem solving, reading, coordination and planning, and the basic intellectual functions, which leads to research on the capacity of the working memory (Unsworth, Spillers, and Brewer). Beginning with Daneman and Carpenter (1980), most researchers bind utilized complex working memory span tasks in which to-be-remembered items are interspersed with some processing activity. For nstance, in the reading span task participants onrush to remember words or letters while reading and comprehending sentences. These tasks can be contrasted with simple memory span tasks in which TBR items are presented without any additional processing activit ies.The complex span tasks nicely capture the idea that the of processing and storage are needed to fully understand the vegetable marrow of working memory and tap its capacity. Furthermore, these tasks can be used to cypher an individuals working memory capacity and examine the correlational statistics between this capacity and other important cognitive abilities (Unsworth, Spillers, and Brewer). The possible that the complex span tasks do not file overall resources abilities but preferably that the processing task displaces items from the working memory (Unsworth, Spillers, and Brewer). Also according to the task-switching view, a person may place an item in the working memory, and a rapid switching mechanism is needed to refresh the item onward it is lost due to decay (Unsworth, Spillers, and Brewer). The faster the information can be complete and switch back to decaying representations, the better the overall performance will be (Unsworth, Spillers, and Brewer).There is als o a difference in the sum of capacity from individual to individual (Unsworth, Spillers, and Brewer). There are two components that individuals may differ on first component is the need to actively maintain information over the short term and the second is the need to retrieve information that could not be actively maintain due to a large number of incoming items (Unsworth, Spillers, and Brewer). The short-term memory has its mysteries due to the amount of information that one can keep and pass on.One thing is for for certain is that without it we will not know what information are relevant for one to keep or decay. Now one can understand the relationship and difference between short-term and long-term memory, the theory of decay, and why the short-term memory is the working memory.References Berman, M. , Jonides, J. , & Lewis, R. (2009). In search of decay in vocal short-term memory. ledger of Experimental Psychology Learning, Memory, and Cognition,35(2), 317-333. inside10. 103 7/a0014873. Retrieved from Academic hunting Premier database. Huffman, K. (2010). Memory,(9th ed. Psychology in action. (242-275) Hoboken, NJ John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lewis, D. (1979). Psychobiology of active and peaceful memory. Psychological Bulletin,86(5), 1054-1083. doi10. 1037/0033-2909. 86. 5. 1054. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Martinez, M. (2010). Human Memory The Basics. Phi Delta Kappan,91(8), 62-65. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Shelton, J. , Elliott, E. , Matthews, R. , Hill, B. , & Gouvier, W. (2010). The relationships of working memory, secondary memory, and general smooth intelligenceWorking memory is special. Journal of Experimental PsychologyLearning, Memory, and Cognition,36(3), 813-820. doi10. 1037/a0019046. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Unsworth, N. , Spillers, G. , & Brewer, G. (2010). The contributions of primary and secondary memory to working memory capacity An individual differences analysis of immed iate free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning, Memory, and Cognition,36(1), 240-247. doi10. 1037/a0017739. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.