Human Memory
Memory questions test the three-store model, types of long-term memory, interference and practical memory strategies.
The Atkinson-Shiffrin model
Information passes through a sensory register (iconic about 0.5 s, echoic about 2 s), short-term memory (capacity about 7 ± 2 chunks, duration about 20 s without rehearsal) and long-term memory (large capacity, long duration). Encoding, storage and retrieval are separate processes. Baddeley's working memory adds a phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and central executive.
Long-term memory types
Declarative memory is explicit: episodic (personal events) and semantic (facts). Procedural memory is implicit skill memory.
Forgetting
Decay, interference, retrieval failure and motivated forgetting are explanations. Proactive interference is old learning disrupting new; retroactive interference is new learning disrupting old. The serial position effect shows primacy (long-term memory) and recency (short-term memory).
Improving memory
Chunking, maintenance and elaborative rehearsal, organisation, mnemonics, the method of loci, spaced practice and deep processing all help.
Worked example
After learning a new phone number, a person keeps dialling the old one. Reasoning: proactive interference, because the previously learned number interferes with recall of the new one. Retroactive interference would be the reverse, with the new number disrupting the old.
Traps
- Short-term capacity is about seven chunks, and chunking increases what fits.
- The recency effect reflects short-term memory, not long-term memory.
- Much forgetting is retrieval failure rather than permanent loss.