Three Stages of Memory: Sensory, Short Term, Long Term

1. Agenda • To Get: • Handouts off back shelf • To Do: • Opener • Lecture: Three Stages of Memory • Memory Test/s – Short Term • Writing Activity

2. Opener Part I: • Write down one of the five number sequences from last class… Opener Part II: Draw a chair in the space below. Be as detailed as you can, think of a SPECIFIC chair. • (do you, don’t look at your neighbor’s or worry about their chair)

3. Three Stages of Memory • We do not store in our memory everything we experience • We can only take in and remember so much • The three stages of memory are: • Sensory Memory • Short Term Memory (STM) • Long Term Memory (LTM)

4. Sensory Memory • First stage of memory • Immediate, initial recording of information experienced via the senses • Memory trace – impression made on our senses by an image; lasts only a fraction of a second. • To remember a memory trace we must do something with the information immediately. • All of our senses have registers • Icons – mental pictures of images (photographic) • Eidetic imagery – TRUE photographic memory – only 5% of population, usually lost by adolescence. • Echoic memory – mental traces of sounds, last longer than memory traces – means acoustic codes are more effective than visual codes

5. Short Term Memory (STM) • Created when we pay attention to iconic and echoic memories • Also known as working memory • Type of memory we use most of the time Primacy and Recency Effects • Primacy – we recall initial items in a series • More time to rehearse and minds are fresher when we see or hear them • Recency – we recall the last items in a series • Most recent thing process by our minds • Tends to mean items in the middle of a series are likely forgotten Chunking • Organization of items into familiar or manageable units (OTTFFSSENT rule, Fibonacci sequence, birthdays, etc.) Interference • When new information takes the place of items already in short term memory • Three letter experiment activity

6. KBT

8. VCF

10. MDO

11. Short Term Memory Test https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/puzmatch.html

13. Add up the total. • Any guesses how many objects there actually were?

14. Short Term Memory Test https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/puzmatch.html

15. Short Term Memory Quiz Part II • https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stm0.html

16. When can short term memory be a problem? • Eyewitness Clips • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-SBTRLoPuo • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4V6aoYuDcg

17. Long Term Memory (LTM) • Third and final stage of memory of information • Active steps as discussed last class, create LTM • Maintenance rehearsal, elaborative rehearsal • LTM contains more information than a computer hard drive • Words, sights, sounds, pictures, smells, tastes, and touches (things a computer can’t even process or save) Capacity of Memory • Unknown limit to LTM • Experiences are not stored permanently • More likely to remember things that capture our attention/interest • LTM are the memories/experiences that have had the greatest impact on us

18. Long Term Memory (LTM) Memory as Reconstructive • Memories are reconstructed from bits and pieces of our experience • Shaped by the personal and individual ways we see the world; based on our own beliefs and needs • Explains siblings remembering the SAME events differently Schemas • Mental representations that we form of the world by organizing bits of information into knowledge Look at your chair drawing – compare to others • Schemas influence both the ways we perceive things and the ways our memories store what we perceive.

19. Writing Activity - Memory • Writing Activity: Think of a POSITIVE LTM that you remember often. Something that motivates you, makes you smile or has shaped your personality. • Be as detailed as possible with your description of your memory. How old were you? Who was there? What was the weather like, what time of year was it? Consider all five senses; sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Brainstorm! Have the above worked out labeled, spider diagram, whatever. 25 points! (out of 100 total once we complete the assignment!)

20. Example - Football Homecoming 1995

22. red

23. green

24. blue

25. brown

26. yellow

27. purple