Notes on Primary Memory - Human Memory | PSY 373, Study notes of Psychology

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• Primary Memory PSY 373, Human MemoryFebruary 1,

Housekeeping • Hand in experiment reports • Hand back quiz • First exam Tu Feb 20 (will try to have review2/15). • Next experiment report is Serial Position,

due 2/13.

Follow-up to question • Did not find^ evidence^ addressing

bilingual question. • Did find evidence for modality effect when listsilently mouthed. •... and corresponding suffix effect. • Attenuation of recency effect for musical notes bychords but not white noise.

Overview of today’s material • Primary/secondary memory1. Miller (1956) and the James/Broadbent model2. The Brown-Peterson Task.3. The Waugh-Norman task.

Primary memory • Primary Memory:^ The^ set^ of^

things^ we’re currently aware of, including the recent past. • Secondary Memory:^ The set of things we couldremember if we wanted to.

James’ (1890) Primary memory “ The^ objects^ we^ feel^ in^

this^ directly^ intuited^ past differ from properly recollected objects.

An object which is recollected, in the proper sense of the term, is one whichhas^ been^ absent^ from^ consciousness

altogether,^ and^ now revives anew... But an object of primary memory is not thusbrought back; it never was lost; its date was never cut off inconsciousness from that of the immediately present moment.In fact, it comes to us as belonging to the rearward portionof the present space of time, and not to the genuine past.

Absolute Identification • Name a unidimensional stimulus. • When the number of stimuli is about

7 ±^2 , this becomes impossible to do perfectly. • Doesn’t depend on the range of the stimuli! • An example.

Chunking • Thought experiment:^ Learn^ list^

“absence, hollow...”,^ then^ recall

the^ letters.^ You’ll^

get way more than^7 ±^2. • This is possible because you’ve recoded the lettersinto chunks called “words.” • Amazing feats of memorization.

Broadbent’s (1958) model • S-system: like iconic and echoic memory • P-system: conscious awareness • secondary memory: long-term storage. • S+P are primary, or immediate memory (limitedcapacity) • Rehearsal^ necessary to maintain information inimmediate memory.

The Brown-Peterson Task • Brown (1958) • Peterson and Peterson (1959) • Recall trigrams after a delay.

What is the purpose of the secondarytask?

What is the purpose of the secondarytask? •^ Prevent rehearsal. •^ If Broadbent’s theory is correct, then we shouldbe looking at decay from primary memory.

Waugh and Norman (1965)Interference^ vs^ decay in primarymemory • Probe digit task:Q: 7 4 3^ 8 9 2 1 5 3? A: 8 • Different rate of presentation. • Allows^ to^ distinguish^ decay

from^ retroactive interference.

How would these results look if decaywere the cause of forgetting? Howabout interference?