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Memory Works
Types of Memory
There are three main types of memory:
1.
2.
3.
Long-term memory
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Before any information enters your brain, it must be gathered through your senses. Once gathered, this information is
very briefly stored in the sensory register. You are not consciously aware of all the information being stored there because there is just way too much at this stage in the memory
process. You become consciously aware of something when
your attention focuses on something in particular that seems
to be important. The remaining information in the sensory register is lost before you even knew it was there.
!
Attention determines whether or not the information you
are gathering will be retained. If an experience or piece of information is given proper attention, it will be easier to retain.
Youre less likely to remember something if you dont initially
pay attention to it.
!
To enhance your memory, you can actually use your
senses to improve attentiveness. To remember information or
an experience try to focus on all the sensory aspects of the
situation. If youre reading something (as you are now), pay
close attention to the visual structure of the page and chapter.
Focus on the smell and sounds of the surrounding environment. Try to link those senses to the information you are reading. Similarly, if you were eating a sandwich, you can focus on
the taste, smell and feeling of the meal. To take it a step further, you can even focus on hearing the sound of the crunch it
makes as you chew. The more senses you incorporate, the
more memorable the experience will be. Engaging all your
senses and paying attention to them will improve your memory. And the more you practice, the better it will get.
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Short-Term Memory
Short-term memory (STM), also known as working memory, is where you hold information that needs to be used at
the moment. You use STM for many functions, some of which
include reading, writing, planning and mental math.
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As the name implies, STM contains information with an
expiration date. Unless you rehearse this information, or commit it to memory in some other way (as youll learn in this
book), youll forget it within a few seconds.
!
If you are familiar with the memory systems of a computer, you can think of STM as Random Access Memory
(RAM). Simply put, RAM provides short-term storage of information so that it can be used by programs or ongoing processes. RAM is different permanent storage (your hard drive)
in that it stores information temporarily. Your STM functions
in a very similar way. This working memory will help you remember things in the short-term, but unless you encode it
into long-term memory it will be lost very quickly.
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Experiments have suggested that there are sub-systems
within STM. For example, people can generally remember
more over short periods of time if the information comes in
different formats. These sub-systems deal with the following:
Visual imagery
Verbal information
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To show you how these sub-systems work within your
STM, think about the following scenario. What would be easier to remember: two 10-item word lists (20 things total) or a
list of 10 word items and 10 images (still 20 things total)? Generally speaking, the two lists of words and images would be
easier because you are utilizing two areas within your STM:
visual imagery and verbal information.
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The visual imagery system within STM is called the visuospatial sketchpad. You can think of it like a whiteboard on
which new images are drawn and erased.
!
Auditory information is stored within STM in a system
called the phonological loop. This systems stores sounds from
speech, songs and other sounds that you hear. The phonological loop contains two distinct components. One is the phonological store, which holds about two seconds worth of auditory
information. The other component is a rehearsal device,
where you automatically repeat the auditory information from
the phonological store in a constant loop. This loop constantly
refreshes the auditory information so that it stays accurate.
!
Have you ever had a song or jingle from a commercial
stuck in your head? Many times, these songs or jingles are designed to be memorable. If they get stuck in your head, they
have succeeded in latching onto your phonological loop.
!
Research also suggests that there may be other STM subsystems for odor, meaning and even sign language.
Auditory information
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Digit-Span Test
The number of digits you can accurately recall is known as
your digit-span. It is one way to measure the power of your
short-term memory.
Instructions:
Look at the numbers below. Going line-by-line, read each
number aloud, cover it with your hand, and then try to
write down the number that you saw. How far through the
list can you get before making a mistake?
8315
39204
167490
0380128
82562821
493192854
4531694862
32053728629
743253294197
9832173164810
49808936789540
84621674901264
98534817278108
03645372964810
90598929648106
How digits did you get to before making a mistake? The average score on this digit-span test is seven. Regardless of
whether you scored better or worse than average, you can
learn simple tricks to improve the capacity of your shortterm memory. Well cover many of these tricks and techniques throughout this book.
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You can think of your STM as being like someone that is
spinning a basketball on their finger. If the person doesnt continue spinning the ball with the other hand it will eventually
spin more slowly and then fall over. In memory, the spinning
is comparable to the process of rehearsing (repeating) the information. The slowing down is comparable to the process of
decay. If you dont rehearse the information immediately, the
process of decay will begin and soon the information will be
lost.
You can increase your STM capacity by chunking information. You can remember long lists and other types of information by organizing it into chunks. Instead of remembering seven small bits of information, you can remember
seven larger chunks of information. Which of the following
numbers is easier to remember?
Instructions:
1.
2.
Focus on something else for one minute, then try to recall the 14-digit number again. Write down how many
digits in-a-row you recorded correctly on the following
line: ______
3.
3129823812
or
312-982-3812
As you can see, the numbers above are exactly the same.
But the second would be easier to memorize because it is
chunked in a phone number format. This can also be done
with letters. For example, you can chunk the following 14
letters: XIBMSATPHDMTVX - can be chunked into four
parts (with an X on each end): X-IBM-SAT-PHD-MTV-X.
Organize information into chunks to improve your STM.
Long-Term Memory
Now that weve comprehensively discussed short-term memory, lets talk about the most important type of memory: longterm memory (LTM). There are two types of LTMs:
1.
Explicit Memory: These are memories that you can consciously recall, such as facts, names, places, etc. Explicit
memory is also commonly known as semantic memory.
hold your attention. When your attention is focused on this information it begins the process of rehearsal. During rehearsal,
the temporary information is constantly refreshed to stop the
process of decay. If you keep this up long enough, the process
of encoding begins and the information will be transferred
into long-term memory.
!
The process of encoding is not simply one-step. There
are different levels of encoding that correspond to various levels of long-term storage. The initial level of encoding transfers
a memory to a type of immediate storage area where the information can be remembered anywhere from an hour to a few
days. If the information is revisited in some way, further encoding could lead to it being stored for a longer period of time.
!
What happens when after a memory is fully encoded? Encoded memories are not like photographs, which contain complete information. Rather, encoded memories can change and
are dependent on a network of associations between the different elements of that particular memory. For example, the
memory of your mother could be composed of different elements that include the various emotions of love, care and fondness; the sensory elements of scent, sight, sound and touch;
and semantic (factual) elements, such as name and location.
Any one of these elements can be associated with thousands,
perhaps millions, of other memories, but they all add up to
the memory of your mother.
To encode memories you need to associate the new information to memories already stored in your brain. Keep in mind,
however, that not all encoding is equally effective. There are
two types of encoding:
1.
2.
!
Shallow encoding involves a very small amount of connections between the new memory and memories already
stored in your brain. Shallow encoding is what happens when
you try to remember something by repeating it to yourself. If
you only repeat something to yourself and dont make any
other connections to the information you will probably only
remember it for a little while because it will be encoded in a
shallow way.
!
Deep encoding is more effective because it involves many
strong connections between the new memory and existing
ones. For example, you are likely to remember your mothers
salty chicken soup sliding down your sore throat during childhood because it is strongly connected to a number of other
memories (a cold winter, the feeling of being sick, your
mothers care, etc.). These strong connections deeply encode
the memory into your brain. Such a memory is stored more securely and is easier to recall.
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How are these storage capacities for the human brain estimated? The math behind it can be somewhat simplistic. The
human brain contains about 100 billion neurons. Each neuron
is capable of making about 1,000 connections through what
are called synapses. Synapses do the much of the work involved with data storage. Multiply 100 billion neurons by the
1,000 connections they can each make and you get 100 trillion, or 100 terabytes of information.
!
However, neuroscientists are quick to admit that the
math behind these estimates can be too simplistic. The calculations assume that each synapse stores 1 byte of information,
but this estimate is not completely accurate because one piece
of information can sometimes require several synapses. Additionally, some synapses are used for processing and not storage (suggesting the estimates may be too high). On the other
hand, there are support cells that might also store information
(suggesting that the estimates could be too low).
!
Even if we accept the estimates of 10 to 100 terabytes, figuring out how much space is used versus free is even more
difficult because the human brain is much more complex than
a hard drive. However, one thing is certain: the idea that humans only use 10 percent of their brain is false. Information
can be stored in every part of the brain.