Short-Term Memory: The Second Stage in Memory Processing

Outline and evaluate research in to the duration, capacity and encoding information in short term memory.

Only the data that catches our attention or something we only need to know for a minute goes into short-term memory. Short-term memory is stored in the brain for about half a minute. Short-term storage is small; it can hold about seven independent items at one time, an example being "carry" numbers in math.Information that may help us in the future will go into long-term memory, where it can last a lifetime.Long-term memory involves three processes: encoding, storage and retrieval.

We have short- and long-term memory because of the way memories need to be stored. There is actually a plethora of different types of memory, but I will just be discussing the basics: sensory, working, commonly called short-term, and long-term memory. Sensory and working memory is similar in that they have two fundamental differences from long-term memory, they have chunk limits, and temporal decay. Chunk limits mean that you're working memory can only contain a rather small amount of memory. Temporal decay is when information fades just due to time. When you’re senses experience something it is stored in sensory memory for around 5 seconds. If this information catches your attention it is moved to working memory for processing. Once in working memory the information last for approximately 30 seconds while you process it. Information can stay in working memory as long as you think about it, but once you leave it, it either fades or is stored in long-term memory, where it can last from minutes to your entire life. You’re sitting at your desk writing a paper and the clock in the bottom left corner counts up a minute. You’re probably not going to notice it, because it’s not important enough to be put in working memory. Now a spider climbs over your screen, if you have a phobia of

Which of the following results of a forward digit span task, IF TRUE, would provide evidence that forgetting in short-term memory is due to decay?

Short term memory refers to a memory system that stores a limited amount of information in conscious awareness for a brief period of time, (McLeod, 2007). Short term memory is integral to cognitive activities such as reading, comprehension & problem solving & language as without it we would be unable to recall the beginning of a sentence by the time we reach the end of it, nor e.g. perform simple mental mathematical calculations (Hedden,et al, 2004). Interestingly because language , reading and problem solving occur sequentially (Hedden,et al, 2004) , information stored in short term memory is stored and retrieved sequentially.( McLeod, 2007) for example, when asked to recall the 3rd digit in a numeric sequence, one would go through the sequence in the order that it was heard in order to retrieve the 3rd digit in a numerical sequence, one would go through the sequence in the order that it was heard to retrieve the 3rd digit.

Having short term memory is an important thing to have. Without short term memory we wouldn’t be able to recall things from only moments before. Short Term Memory is the ability to recall things from moments to days before. Imagine having a conversation with someone and then as soon as your attention is redirected you forget what you’ve just been told.

A study was conducted to test how short term memory is retrieved and transferred to long term memory, the Serial Exhaustive theory was presented by Saul Sternberg. For the experiment, the participants were shown a series of numbers and was instructed to memorize them. Following, the probe number was presented on the screen. The participant was then prompted to indicate whether or not the probe number was included in the sequence shown initially or is it was new, the amount of time it took for the participant to respond was measured. The dependent variable is the measurement of the reaction time and the independent variables were set size (1, 3, 5) and whether or not the probe was present or absent. It was hypothesized that the participants will search for all of the items regardless of where the target appears. It was also hypothesized that first sequence of numbers will have the quickest reaction time part the participants, followed by set three which will be faster than set five.

Memories are formed through a process of encoding and storing information in the brain so that it can be easily accessible in future occasions. In order to remember facts, our brains reproduce a sequence of neural activity that imitates the initial conditions of information storage. Short term memory (STM), which is activated in free recall experiments, is regarded as the smallest

An advantage of the working memory model is that it explains certain neurological results in a way that the multi-store model cannot. For example, Patient KF (Warrington & Shallice, 1974) had verbal difficulties, however his short-term memory for visual information and meaningful sounds (such as a phone ringing) were unaffected. The model explains these results. An impaired phonological loop can account for the verbal impairment, and the fact that his memory for visual information works well can be explained by an intact visuo-spatial sketchpad.

The three different types of memory are sensory, short-term, and long-term. Sensory memory is held information for a fraction of a second after the item disappears. Short-term memory is a small store of information in a person’s consciousness that can last from a few seconds up to a minute without rehearsal. Long-term memory is the storage of important

Working memory refers to the retention of many items in a short period of time and it is responsible for storing them temporarily. Language comprehension, learning, and reasoning are all involved in working memory. Working memory is important in our everyday lives because without it we would not be able to hold on to the information long enough to do a given task. Problems with working memory could impact how we learn, writing, problem solving, math and even reading would be very difficult. Working memory is divided into three categories: the central executive, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the phonological loop. During the past few years there has been research on this subject and questions about it. In 1968 Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed the Muti-store model. This model said that memory was separated into a sensory register, a short-term store, and a long-term store. In 1974 Baddeley and Hitch proposed a model of working memory because they thought that the multi-store model was too simple. Baddeley and Hitch wanted to see if people could use different parts of their working memory at the same time. In 1989 Turner and Engle used the operational span task, which is a widely used measure of working memory capacity to see if people could remember many different items at once. All of these researchers had their own findings about working memory. In the end researchers have explain what working memory is and they have also come up with research and evidence about this

Short term memory is a temporary memory that involves remembering things that have just occurred through active rehearsal. For example, if a person is trying to remember a phone number to call in a few minutes they keep repeating it over and over again as a way to temporarily maintain the information. William James described short term memory as being “of limited capacity, effortlessly available, and fleeting” (Gluck, Mercado, Myers, 2016). According to George Miller short term memory has a limited capacity of 5-7 items +/- 2. In order to remember something, the person has to stay focused on the information by rehearsing it and ignoring all the distractions since it can easily be forgotten. Eventually the information will be forgotten if it

Short term memory, otherwise known as working memory, is the process by which our brain “works” with the newly discovered material and allocates the information to a place where we can easily forget. For example, studying for a test last second would cause for the information learned to be stored in our short term memory, which would result in us forgetting the material quickly if we don’t try to remember it. However, if we prep before tests and don’t study last second, the information would be sent to our long term memory, a place that we can remember for a long period of time. We could allow for us to use our long term memory by not studying last second, taking notes and reviewing them, and by taking practice

The Multistore Model of Memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968) says that the memory is made up of three different stores. Information goes into the sensory memory, which then goes into the short term memory and then the long term memory is the information is rehearsed. Miller put forward the idea that the short term memory had a capacitor 5-9 pieces of information (Magic 7, which is 7 plus/minus 2). This is supported by evidence from studies, such as Jacobs (1887), where he found that on average people could remember 7.3 letters and 9.3 numbers out of all the letters in the alphabet and a list of numbers in a span test. TheSTM had a duration of approximately 18 seconds. This is shown in Peterson and Peterson’s study (1959) where 24 students were asked to recall trigrams, and so that they did not go into the LTM they were aked to count backwards in threes from a random number straightt after. They found that participants could recall 80% of the trigrams after 3 seconds, and after 18 seconds they could only recall 10%. This reinforces the idea that the STM can only hold information for unto 18 seconds.

Through their examination of a multitude of studies centered around two prominent theories of working memory, Honig theory and Braddely and Hitch Theory, Becker and Morris (1999) generally define working memory “…as a system of interacting components that maintain newly acquired and reactivated stored information, both verbal and nonverbal, and make it available for further information processing” (p. 1). Essentially, the working memory is what processes the information that’s at the front of someone’s mind; it’s the words, equations, and pictures that form a running dialog that is their active thought process. The working memory has a limited capacity of 7 ± 2 items (Miller, 1956), and this limitation is key to understanding a primary difference between expert and novice problem solvers.