PSYCH 147 REVIEWER SENSORY MEMORY
CHAPTER 5: SHORT-TERM AND WORKING MEMORY Sensory memory- is the retention, for brief periods of time, of
The Importance of Memory in Our Lives the effects of sensory stimulation.
Memory- the processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and The Sparkler’s Trial and The Projector’s Shutter
using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills persistence of vision- retention of the perception of light in
after the original information is no longer present. your mind
-sparkler example, pagnew year and film example
Sperling’s Experiment: Measuring the Capacity and
Duration of Sensory Store
-George Sperling (1960) wondered how much information
people can take in from brie y presented stimuli. He determined
this in a famous experiment in which he flashed an array of
letters
STUDYING MEMORY
-Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968). This model is
called the modal model of memory because it included many
of the features of memory models that were being proposed in
the 1960s. This model became extremely influential and shaped
research on memory for many years. The stages in the model
are called the structural features of the model. There are three
major structural features:
1. Sensory memory is an initial stage that holds all incoming
information for seconds or fractions of a second.
2. Short-term memory (STM) holds 5–7 items for about 15–
30 seconds.
3. Long-term memory (LTM) can hold a large amount of
information for years or even decades
-on the screen for 50 milliseconds (50/1000 second) and asked
his participants to report as many of the letters as possible
-This part of the experiment used the whole report method;
that is, participants were asked to report as many letters as
possible from the whole matrix
-they were able to report an average of 4.5 out of the 12 letters.
-At this point Sperling could have concluded that because the
exposure was brief, participants saw only an average of 4.5 of
the 12 letters. However, there is another possibility: Perhaps
participants saw most of the letters immediately after they were
presented, but their perception faded rapidly as they were
reporting the letters, so by the time they had reported 4–5
letters, they could no longer see the matrix or remember what
had been there.
-Sperling devised the partial report method to determine
which of these two possibilities is correct. In this technique, he
flashed the matrix for 50 ms, as before, but immediately after it
was flashed, he sounded one of the following cue tones, to
indicate which row of letters the participants were to report
-Sperling concluded that the correct description of what was
happening was that immediately after the display was
presented, participants saw an average of 82 percent of the
-Atkinson and Shiffrin also described the memory system as letters in the whole display, but were not able to report all of
including control processes, which are active processes that these letters because they rapidly faded as the initial letters
can be controlled by the person and may differ from one task to were being reported.
another. -Sperling devised a delayed partial report method in which
-An example of a control process is rehearsal—repeating a the presentation of cue tones was delayed for a fraction of a
stimulus over and over, as you might repeat a telephone second after the letters were extinguished
number in order to hold it in your mind after looking it up in the -The result of the delayed partial report experiments was that
phone book or on the Internet. when the cue tones were delayed for 1 second after the ash,
-Other examples of control processes are (1) strategies you participants were able to report only slightly more than 1 letter
might use to help make a stimulus more memorable, such as in a row, the equivalent of about 4 letters for all three rows—the
relating the numbers in a phone number to a familiar date in same number of letters they reported using the whole report
history, and (2) strategies of attention that help you focus on method.
information that is particularly important or interesting.
CHAPTER 5: SHORT-TERM AND WORKING MEMORY Sensory memory- is the retention, for brief periods of time, of
The Importance of Memory in Our Lives the effects of sensory stimulation.
Memory- the processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and The Sparkler’s Trial and The Projector’s Shutter
using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills persistence of vision- retention of the perception of light in
after the original information is no longer present. your mind
-sparkler example, pagnew year and film example
Sperling’s Experiment: Measuring the Capacity and
Duration of Sensory Store
-George Sperling (1960) wondered how much information
people can take in from brie y presented stimuli. He determined
this in a famous experiment in which he flashed an array of
letters
STUDYING MEMORY
-Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968). This model is
called the modal model of memory because it included many
of the features of memory models that were being proposed in
the 1960s. This model became extremely influential and shaped
research on memory for many years. The stages in the model
are called the structural features of the model. There are three
major structural features:
1. Sensory memory is an initial stage that holds all incoming
information for seconds or fractions of a second.
2. Short-term memory (STM) holds 5–7 items for about 15–
30 seconds.
3. Long-term memory (LTM) can hold a large amount of
information for years or even decades
-on the screen for 50 milliseconds (50/1000 second) and asked
his participants to report as many of the letters as possible
-This part of the experiment used the whole report method;
that is, participants were asked to report as many letters as
possible from the whole matrix
-they were able to report an average of 4.5 out of the 12 letters.
-At this point Sperling could have concluded that because the
exposure was brief, participants saw only an average of 4.5 of
the 12 letters. However, there is another possibility: Perhaps
participants saw most of the letters immediately after they were
presented, but their perception faded rapidly as they were
reporting the letters, so by the time they had reported 4–5
letters, they could no longer see the matrix or remember what
had been there.
-Sperling devised the partial report method to determine
which of these two possibilities is correct. In this technique, he
flashed the matrix for 50 ms, as before, but immediately after it
was flashed, he sounded one of the following cue tones, to
indicate which row of letters the participants were to report
-Sperling concluded that the correct description of what was
happening was that immediately after the display was
presented, participants saw an average of 82 percent of the
-Atkinson and Shiffrin also described the memory system as letters in the whole display, but were not able to report all of
including control processes, which are active processes that these letters because they rapidly faded as the initial letters
can be controlled by the person and may differ from one task to were being reported.
another. -Sperling devised a delayed partial report method in which
-An example of a control process is rehearsal—repeating a the presentation of cue tones was delayed for a fraction of a
stimulus over and over, as you might repeat a telephone second after the letters were extinguished
number in order to hold it in your mind after looking it up in the -The result of the delayed partial report experiments was that
phone book or on the Internet. when the cue tones were delayed for 1 second after the ash,
-Other examples of control processes are (1) strategies you participants were able to report only slightly more than 1 letter
might use to help make a stimulus more memorable, such as in a row, the equivalent of about 4 letters for all three rows—the
relating the numbers in a phone number to a familiar date in same number of letters they reported using the whole report
history, and (2) strategies of attention that help you focus on method.
information that is particularly important or interesting.
