Information Processing Model of Memory

Transcript

The earliest theorists thought of human memory to something akin to a computer.

In a computer, we feed in information, it is held in a storage and it is available for
use when we need it. Models of memory that are based on this idea are called
Information processing theories. One of the first and most influential of
information processing theories of memory was Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model,
given in 1968.

Repetitive
Elaborative rehearsal
rehearsal
(moves information to
(retains
long-term memory)
information
in short-
term
memory

SENSORY LONG-They
TERM
According
Inform to this model, there are three main types of memory storages.
MEMORIES SHORT– TERM MEMORY MEMORY
ation
are: Sight (Iconic)
Sound (Echoic)
1. Sensory Other
memory sensory
or sensory register
memories
2. Short term memory
Loss of information Loss of information
3. Long term memory
typically within 1 second within about 15 to 25
seconds
Each of these storages vary in terms of the time interval for which they store
information and also the function that each of them serves.

The sensory memory is the first storage system, where information coming from
the environment is just registered very briefly and the person has not really made
sense of it. In other words, it is non-meaningful material that has just reached the
senses. This information is stored for hardly a second. This information could
either be iconic (visual) or echoic (auditory), or even from other senses like taste,
smell and touch.
Short term memory is the next storage system, where information is held for
about 20-25 seconds. Here the information is registered as meaningful material
and rather than as just raw, sensory impressions. For example, when we complete
an online transaction, we have to key in an OTP. We read the six digit number,
rehearse it, and key it in, to complete the transaction. We do not remember this
OTP after we have used it. Thus information from Short term Memory is typically
lost after about 15 to 25 seconds.

Finally, Long Term Memory is the biggest storage system, where information is
held for unlimited time. Sometimes, events that have happened to us when we
were very small may stay in our Long Term Memory for our entire lifetime. There
is also no limit to how much information can be stored in our Long Term
Memory. According to this model, if the information that enters the Short Term
Memory storage is rehearsed elaboratively, it is transferred to the Long Term
Memory storage, where it can be retained infinitely. Of course, it may sometimes
be difficult to retrieve information from Long Term Memory if it has not been
used for a long time. We will be discussing each of these three storages separately,
although, in reality, they all function together in our everyday experience.

Let us take a little pause here and revise what we have learnt: reflection Spot

Match the following

Memory storage where information is Short Term Memory

held only for a second at the most
Information that is rehearsed Sensory memory
elaboratively goes to the ___________
Memory storage where the Long term memory
information held is meaningful, but is
lost after 20 to 25 seconds
Let us now understand each one of these storages:

SENSORY MEMORY

If you are travelling in a car at fairly high speed, you may not be able to read road
signs, because before you can read them, or make sense of them, you have passed
them by. You see the sign briefly, but it does not register as a meaningful word,
because it has flashed on your eyes for a fraction of a second. If you have
experienced a jungle safari, you may have found that your tour guide is able to
pick up monkey calls or deer calls, signalling the presence of a tiger, while you
don’t. These animal calls are brief and sometimes faint. And so, they may not get
registered even though they have fallen on your ears. You might have even
noticed that as you learn to attend carefully, you also become skilled in noticing
these calls yourself. One characteristic of the sensory register is that if the
information gathered in it is not transferred to Short Term Memory, it is lost
forever. As explained before, there are different types of sensory inputs that we
keep receiving all the time. Visual inputs like lights, colours and sights are called
Iconic Memory, while auditory inputs such as the sound of something falling on
the ground, or the momentary sound of a bell, is called Echoic Memory. While
Iconic memory lasts only for about one second, echoic memory may last for upto
three or four seconds. There are also smells, tastes and touch that may be very
brief and if not transferred to the Short Term Memory, they may be lost
permanently.

Scientists say that our sensory memory is a very accurate system, though it is able
to store information for a very brief period. It is able to store an exact replica of
whatever stimulus it is exposed to. You may be wondering, that if this information
is held only for a second, how do we even know that a sensory memory exists?
Because, by the time we try to say what we have seen or heard, it is already going
to be lost. George Sperling conducted a series of brilliant experiments and proved
that sensory memory exists and it can hold a good amount of information.
Sperling exposed people to a pattern like this for about one-twentieth of a second:

D T V H
K W B M
I C E Z
He then asked people to recall what they had seen. Most people could recall only
4 or 5 of the alphabets although they knew that they had seen many more. But by
the time they began to recall the letters, they had forgotten. Sperling thought that
may be the sensory register had a more accurate picture of what they had seen,
but because the time for which it can be retained was so less, they could not
accurately report what they had seen. Sperling thought of a clever plan to check
this possibility. In the new design of the experiment, either a high, medium or
low tone was sounded just after people had been exposed to the letters. People
were told that if a high tone is sounded, they were supposed to recall the letters
in the highest line. If a medium tone was sounded, they had to recall letters from
the middle line and if a low tone was sounded, they had to recall letters from the
lowest line. People did not know in advance which tone was going to be sounded.
Because the tone was sounded after the exposure to the set of letters, people had
to rely on their memory to report the letters. Surprisingly, people could recall the
letters accurately regardless of whether they had to recall the first, middle or
lowest line. Sperling thus proved that people had accurately registered the whole
pattern. He then gradually increased the time interval between the exposure to the
pattern of letters and the sound. Peoples’ recall declined as the time gap between
the exposure and the tone increased. Sperling found that people could not recall
the row accurately at all after the time gap reached to one second. Sperling
concluded that the visual image was held in the sensory register for less than one
second.

To conclude, our sensory memory is an accurate snapshot, visual, auditory or

other kind of information, but immediately after being taken, it is replaced by
another one.