Think about all your past experiences, learning to ride a bike, first day of school, what you did on the weekend, the last movie you saw. All these thoughts are memories.
Memory
Memory is the ability to store are retrieve information. We can break memory up into 2 types.
Short - term memory
&
Long - term Memory
Short-term memory lasts for about 30 seconds. It is known as an Active Working Memory which holds information you are consciously thinking about
Look up a telephone number and type it into your phone. Chances are, by the time you’ve called the person you’ve forgotten the number.
Long-term memory lasts can last for an entire life time.
Singing a song requires long term memory. Remembering your parents name requires long term memory.
Riding a bike requires long term memory. Even if you don’t ride a bike for 5 years, you’ll still be able to ride a bike later in life.
Quick Questions
1. Define Short term memory and Long term memory
2. What is the difference between a long term and short term memory
3. Give 3 examples of a Short term memory, and 3 examples of a Long term memory.
It was Sherlock Holmes who said ‘“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture (memories) as you choose.” Holmes is careful to fill his brain with only memories that are useful. Contrary to the great detective there is really no limit to how much information you can store in your long-term memory.
Alzheimer’s can affect your short-term memory. Although they may not remember the day of the week or what they said 5 minutes ago, they can remember their childhood, parents and other long term memories.
Brain damaged patients may lose their short-term memory and/or long-term memory. In some serious cases they can even forget who they are.
Being able to loose your short term memory, but still access your long term memories shows us that each type of memory works in different ways.
Korsakoff’s Syndrome is a memory disorders caused by severe deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B) alcohol abuse, AIDS, chronic infections and poor nutrition.
Its not just physical damage to the brain, but also Traumatic events which can can trigger amnesia.
There are many different scientific models describing how memory works.
One of the best models to explain how memory works is the multistore memory model.
At the start are our sensations. Our touch, smell, sight, hearing even our sense of balance, pain and movement. These feed into Sense Memory.
All of your senses are feed into your sense memory. It has a large capacity but only holds on to information for a brief time.
Quick Questions
1. How does Alzheimer’s affects the brain?
2. Explain 2 ways memory loss can occur
From here, information that we pay attention too is sent to our short term memory (STM).
STM is small, with only a 3 - 30 seconds information duration.
From here, if the information is not rehearsed it will be forgotten.
Constant rehearsal eventually leads to encoding sending a memory to Long Term Memory (LTM).
LTM has a large storage capacity and duration.
Short term memory is what we use at the moment. When working on a maths problem you are using your short term memory.
This means there must be away to retrieve information from long term memory to short term memory.
This process of getting a memory back from long term, is called retrieval.
Quick Questions
1. Draw a diagram of the Multi store memory model and explain the stages.
2. John and Sam both have amnesia, however they differ in their cognitive abilities.
When speaking to John, he can tell you stories of his childhood and recall memories of his family. However ask him what he did yesterday and he is unable to answer you.
Sam on the other hand can’t struggles with tell you names of basic things. Although he tells you he knows what they are, he can’t physically say it.
a. Using the multi store memory model, explain what part has gone wrong in John.
b. Using the multi store memory model, explain what part has gone wrong in Sam.
Most theories of memory agree with the existence of a short term and long term memory store.
Although this is a widely accepted model of memory there are some issues with it.
The model over simplifies memory.
Long term memory is probably broken up into many different stores not just one.
The model suggests that audio rehearsal helps transform STM to LTM.
However swimming and riding a bike require no audio rehearsal, while reading your notes over an over again doesn’t always lead to LTM.
Traumatic events or strong stimulus can become a LTM without rehearsal
This shows that rehearsal isn’t as important as the model suggests.
Quick Questions
1. What are 3 limitations of the Multi memory store model?
2. How would you alter the Multi memory store model to make it more accurate? What would you include or exclude?
