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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 [2011/06/30 12:47]
jpetrovic [One or two memory systems?]
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-====== Early Models and Measures of Memory ======
+====== A Brief History of Human Memory Systems Research ======
 ===== Early models and measures of memory =====
-Some of the first notable noted research on human memory was conducted in 1890 by **[[http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/james/introduction.cfm|William James]]**. Based on his works, James assumed memory consists out of **two systems**:
+Some of the first notable noted research on human memory was conducted in 1890 by **[[http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/james/introduction.cfm|William James]]**. Based on his research, James assumed memory consists out of **two systems**:
   * **primary memory**, which lasts for a **few seconds** and holds **in our consciousness** the perception of events in our environment, and
@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 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:
+===== One or two memory systems? =====
-  * **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)
+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.
-  * **information encoding** (semantic for LTM and acoustic for STM)
-  * 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]]**((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.
+[[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]]**(([[http://www.rca.ucsd.edu/selected_papers/2_Human%20memory_A%20proposed%20system%20and%20its%20control%20processes.pdf|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. This thesis is supported by differences in(([[http://web.missouri.edu/~cowann/documents/Cowan2008progressinbrainresearchSTMLTM.pdf|Cowan, N. What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory? Progress in brain research 169: 323-338. 2008.]])):
+  * **capacity** (small for STM and large or unlimited for LTM),
+  * **duration limits** (items in STM decay as a function of time, which is not a characteristic of LTM),
+  * **retention speed** (very high for STM and possibly lower for LTM),
+  * **time to acquire information** (short for STM and longer for LTM),
+  * **information encoding** (semantic for LTM and acoustic or visual for STM), and
+  * type of memory affected by physical injuries in patients((See: Milner, B. Amnesia following operation on the temporal lobes. In C.W.M. Whitty & O. L. Zangwill (eds), Amnesia. London: Butterworth, 1966. (damage of LTM without damaging STM), and [[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00335557043000203|Shallice, T. & Warrington, E.K. Independent functioning of verbal memory stores: a neuropsychological study. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 22, 261–273. 1970.]] (damaged STM with fully functioning LTM), cited by [[http://gen.lib.rus.ec/get?md5=00b2fd0fb59c5de5704bb86e70a6871a|Baddeley, Alan D. The Psychology of Memory. In Michael D. Kopelman, and Barbara A. Wilson. The Handbook of Memory Disorders. 2nd ed. Wiley, 2002.]])).
+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 performed 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 =====

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