Sensory Memory

1. Sensory Memory Pham Tuan Minh School of Computer Science and Engineering

2. Contents • Sensory Memory • Iconic Memory • Sperling’s experiments • Problems with Iconic Memory • Echoic Memory • Precategorical Acoustic Store (PAS) • Other Theories of Echoic Memory • Odor Memory

3. Sensory Memory (1) The Information Processing Model

4. Sensory Memory (2) • “Sensory memory is the name given to the memory system that retains purely sensory information.” (Crowder & Surprenant, 2000) • There are two types of sensory memory: • Iconic memory • Echoic memory

5. Iconic Memory • Iconic memory: • A type of sensory memory • Was named by George Sperling in 1960

6. Sperling’s experiments (1) • Sperling’s experiments required the tests to recall as many elements from a visual display removed at various different intervals. • Sperling’s experiments required the tests to recall as many elements from a visual display removed at various different intervals. • Sperling’s experiments required the tests to recall as many elements from a visual display removed at various different intervals. • Sperling’s experiments required the tests to recall as many elements from a visual display removed at various different intervals.

7. Sperling’s experiments (2) • Sperling’s experiments concluded the idea of iconic memory – a “single, visible, precategorical, high-capacity, quickly decaying memory”.

8. Problems with Iconic Memory • In some experiments (Merikle, 1980), iconic memory is not precategorical. • The idea of output interference. • The types of errors that the subjects make. • Stimulus persistence is different from information persistence.

9. Echoic Memory • Echoic memory: • A type of sensory memory • Was named by Neisser in 1967

10. Precategorical Acoustic Store • Precategorical Acoustic Store (PAS) is the best modality which is seen as a specific theory of echoic memory. • PAS makes several predictions about the modality effect.

11. PAS’s predictions • No recency effect will be observable with visual presentation when serial recall is the measure. • The usefulness of the supplementary information in PAS.

12. Other Theories of Echoic Memory • The Changing-State Hypothesis • The Primary Linguistic Code Hypothesis • The Multicomponent View Cannot address the modality and suffix effects observed with tactile stimuli Tests of the changing state hypothesis have generally not been supportive Cannot explain tactile modality and suffix effects

13. Odor Memory • Studies of odor memory have lagged far behind studies of visual and auditory memory. • Continuing debate in odor memory.

14. Thank you for listening!