Memory - Key Concepts

STM ( short-term memory) has a duration of 18- 30 seconds and has a capacity of 7 chunks (give or take 2). This is Miller's magic number.

LTM (long-term memory) has an unlimited duration and an unlimited capacity.

Information goes through the stages of encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Input

• Taking in information through our senses, such as sounds coming into our ears in the form of sound waves

Encoding

• How we change information that has been input so we can make sense of it.
• Once information has been encoded, it can be stored

Storage

• Keeping information so we can use it again if necessary
• We store information in different ways (informational/procedural)
• How it is stored will affect how it is retrieved

Retrieval

• The process of recovering information from storage

Output

• Information that has been retrieved is 'output'
• This may result in taking action or choosing a response.

If information is not used, it may decay. If informated is 'pushed out' it is displaced.

This can lead to accessibility problems (problems associated with retrieving information in storage, such as the tip of the tongue phenomenon) or availability problems (problems associated with information no loner being stored)