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memory_models:a_brief_history_of_human_memory_systems [2011/04/06 08:33]
jpetrovic created
memory_models:a_brief_history_of_human_memory_systems [2011/04/06 08:45]
jpetrovic [Early models and measures of memory]
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 During the 1950s **John Brown**(([[http://​step.psy.cmu.edu/​articles/​Brown58.doc|Brown,​ J. Some Tests of the Decay Theory of Immediate Memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 10, 12-21. 1958.]])) and **Lloyd and Margaret Peterson**(([[http://​www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/​pubmed/​14432252|Peterson,​ L. R., & Peterson, M. J. Short-term retention of individual verbal items. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 193-198. 1959.]])) conducted research on information forgetting, offering other explanations of forgetting. Their hypothesis was that forgetting occurs due to the rapid **decay of the memory trace** (//the neural substrate of retention//​) when it is first established. Both reasons will later be accepted as correct. During the 1950s **John Brown**(([[http://​step.psy.cmu.edu/​articles/​Brown58.doc|Brown,​ J. Some Tests of the Decay Theory of Immediate Memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 10, 12-21. 1958.]])) and **Lloyd and Margaret Peterson**(([[http://​www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/​pubmed/​14432252|Peterson,​ L. R., & Peterson, M. J. Short-term retention of individual verbal items. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 193-198. 1959.]])) conducted research on information forgetting, offering other explanations of forgetting. Their hypothesis was that forgetting occurs due to the rapid **decay of the memory trace** (//the neural substrate of retention//​) when it is first established. Both reasons will later be accepted as correct.
  
-Another issue discussed during 1960s was weather human memory system has one or two components. Some authors like **[[http://​books.nap.edu/​html/​biomems/​amelton.pdf|Arthur Melton]]**(([[http://​www.dtic.mil/​cgi-bin/​GetTRDoc?​AD=AD0422425&​Location=U2&​doc=GetTRDoc.pdf|Melton,​ Arthur W. Implication of short-term memory for a general theory of memory, October 1963.]])) argued that both short term memory (STM) and long term memory (LTM) are just two subcomponents dependent on the same system. He justified his views by proofs of activation of the LTM in STM experiments. His work was very influential,​ yet during the years evidences ​of at least two separate memory systems have accumulated. Some of these are:+Another issue discussed during 1960s was weather human memory system has one or two components. Some authors like **[[http://​books.nap.edu/​html/​biomems/​amelton.pdf|Arthur Melton]]**(([[http://​www.dtic.mil/​cgi-bin/​GetTRDoc?​AD=AD0422425&​Location=U2&​doc=GetTRDoc.pdf|Melton,​ Arthur W. Implication of short-term memory for a general theory of memory, October 1963.]])) argued that both short term memory (STM) and long term memory (LTM) are just two subcomponents dependent on the same system. He justified his views by proofs of activation of the LTM in STM experiments. His work was very influential,​ yet during the years more and more evidence ​of at least two separate memory systems have accumulated
 + 
 +[[http://​en.wikipedia.org/​wiki/​Memory|{{ ​ :​images:​multistore_model.png|The multi-store model of Atkinson and Shiffrin. Image borrowed from: Wikipedia: Memory. Click on the picture to follow the link.}}]]The first more influential two component memory model was introduced in **1968** by **[[http://​www.ucop.edu/​pres/​atkbio.html|Richard Atkinson]]** and **[[http://​www.cogs.indiana.edu/​people/​homepages/​shiffrin.html|Richard Shiffrin]]**((Atkinson,​ R.C. & Shiffrin, R.M. Chapter: Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In Spence, K.W.; Spence, J.T. The psychology of learning and motivation (Volume 2). New York: Academic Press. pp. 89–195. 1968.)). Their model called //​Multi-store model// consisted of long-term and working or short-term memory model and was later improved by an additional component, the **//sensory memory//**. Sensory memory contains one register for each sense and serves as an short lasting buffer-zone before the information can enter short-term memory. Short-term memory is a temporal storage for new information before it enters long-term memory, but is also used for cognitive tasks, understanding and learning. 
 + 
 +The thesis of two separate memory systems: the **long-term memory** and the **short-term memory** is today considered to be true. Some of the evidence for this thesis ​are:
  
   * **differences in characteristics** like retention speed (high for STM and longer for LTM), capacity (small for STM and large or unlimited for LTM), time to acquire information (short for STM and longer for LTM)   * **differences in characteristics** like retention speed (high for STM and longer for LTM), capacity (small for STM and large or unlimited for LTM), time to acquire information (short for STM and longer for LTM)
-  * **information encoding** (semantic for LTM and acoustic for STM)+  * **information encoding** (semantic for LTM and acoustic ​or visual ​for STM)
   * patients who suffered **physical injuries** demonstrated how LTM or STM can be damaged without influencing the other   * patients who suffered **physical injuries** demonstrated how LTM or STM can be damaged without influencing the other
  
-[[http://​en.wikipedia.org/​wiki/​Memory|{{ ​ :​images:​multistore_model.png|The multi-store model of Atkinson and Shiffrin. Image borrowed from: Wikipedia: Memory. Click on the picture to follow the link.}}]]The first more influential two component memory model was introduced in **1968** by **[[http://​www.ucop.edu/​pres/​atkbio.html|Richard Atkinson]]** and **[[http://​www.cogs.indiana.edu/​people/​homepages/​shiffrin.html|Richard Shiffrin]]**((AtkinsonR.C. & Shiffrin, R.M. Chapter: Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In Spence, K.W.; Spence, J.T. The psychology of learning and motivation (Volume 2). New York: Academic Press. pp. 89–195. 1968.)). Their model called //​Multi-store model// consisted of long-term and working ​or short-term ​memory ​model and was later improved ​by an additional component, ​the **//sensory memory//**. Sensory memory contains one register for each sense and serves as an short lasting buffer-zone before the information can enter short-term memory. Short-term memory is a temporal storage for new information before it enters long-term memory, but is also used for cognitive tasks, understanding and learning.+Another term should be clarified here: the [[memory_models:human_working_memory|working memory]], which is often mistaken for the short-term ​memory. The main difference between these two is that working memory ​usually includes the structure ​and processes operated ​by a system in control of the short-term memory. ​
  
-The thesis of two separate memory systems: the **long-term memory** and the **short-term memory** is today considered to be true. These terms should not be confused with the **[[memory_models:​working memory]]**. There are various definitions of the working memory((Nelson Cowan mentiones three of them in [[http://​web.missouri.edu/​~cowann/​documents/​Cowan2008progressinbrainresearchSTMLTM.pdf|What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory? Progress in brain research 169: 323-338. 2008.]]: "//​short-term memory applied to cognitive tasks//",​ "//​multi-component system that holds and manipulates information in short-term memory//",​ or "//use of attention to manage short-term memory//"​.)),​ yet what is mostly common to them is that they address working memory as the whole system which manipulates information from passive capacities of LTM and STM. 
 ===== Bibliography ===== ===== Bibliography =====
  
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