How Memory Works - Essay Example

HOW MEMORY WORKS 7/-- HOW MEMORY WORKS? Human memory has been a of study sincemany years. With time the different aspects regarding the human memory have been understood. This has been a subject of interest and fascination with the development of new research regarding the issue. The human memory was initially considered to be functioning as a single element but it was then understood that human memory is a very wide subject and it has many units which perform tasks at the same time to run the human memory in a perfect and organized manner. The human memory has the capability to store a large amount of memory. This is stored with the usage of three ways. First of all, the human mind changes matter into storage forms. This is done by integrating memory with known events which can be things are seen, heard or experienced. This method is referred to as encoding. The second step is storage whereby the human mind places information in the memory for storage. The final part is the ability of a human being to recall and recover the stored information in times of need that is when a person needs to utilize the memory. An interesting aspect of human memory which is unique to the human memory is that their memory functions as a multi unit. The three basic divisions include the sensory memory, the short term memory and the long term memory. The sensory memory is one which comes directly from the persons five senses. This memory is not very long lasting and stays for around 350 milliseconds. This memory does not possess ways for improvement. In 1960 an experiment was conducted by George Sperling to test this memory. According to the procedure a group of people was shown twelve letters arranged in three different rows. Different subjects were asked to repeat the different letters present in different rows. The subjects recalled what they saw but they could not remember it for a long time. The experiment suggested that the sensory memory got erased after some time and the maximum capacity of the sensory memory that a person could retain was around twelve letters. The short term memory is the next step which is reached when the events are moved from the sensory part to the area of realization and perception. This information is also short lived but the time duration of this memory is greater than that of the sensory memory. This time is around 30 seconds and this memory is used basically in short tasks. But this memory does have space for improvement by a method which is known as chunking. Chunking as the name implies means to break in to pieces. An example to support this can be seen when a person is able to learn numbers when they are shown in divisions rather than in one complete form. Another aspect which follows the short term memory is known as working memory. The working memory is the immediate follow up of the short term memory and this type of memory comes when a person gives more time in retaining something than he utilizes for the short term memory. Another intriguing factor about short term memory is the fact immediately if a person is switched from one subject to another he tends to forget a part of the previous information. An interesting experiment relating to the short term memory was conducted by George Miller. He was a famous psychologist who presented this study which was known as "The magical number 7±2" in 1956. In this paper he presented a fact that while he was busy in his work he realized that 7 was mainly the number which was equivalent to the number of things that he could memorize. Thus he presented that this was the magical number which showed the amount of things that could be retained in our short term memory were approximately 7. Another study by Conrad in 1964 showed another fascinating aspect of the short term memory. According to this study a person uses more of his hearing capabilities for the retention of information in the short term memory rather than what he sees. Long term memory is different from the other two forms of memory. This memory lasts for a greater span of time as compared to any other form of memory and it is through this memory that we can retain information for many years. This memory is considered to be associated with a part of the brain which is known as the hippocampus. The long term memory is also related to sleep. It is seen that to preserve keep hold of information it is necessary for a person to get sufficient sleep. Long term memory is considered to come after the short term memory. Information that reaches long term memory can be due to many reasons. It is believed that if a person goes through certain information again and again that will reach to the long term memory. On the other hand a high priority subject will also be retained in this memory. This form of memory is considered to be stable. It is also considered that this memory has too much space for storage and human beings do not even utilize a small proportion of this capacity. It is believed that this space is sufficient for retaining all the numbers in the directory of the United States. This memory is divided into the declarative memory which is responsible for the storage of information regarding the occurrences in our lives and the non declarative long term memory which is something that a person has within. This includes the small everyday tasks that we know how to perform and do not forget like cleaning our teeth and taking a bath. Another aspect of memory is the fact that we have a tendency to lose things from our memory as well. This is because certain information which is not recalled for a long time might be lost. On the other hand, when a person is under stress or if a person wants to forget certain aspects of his life, these pieces of information do not possess a high retention level and may be lost from the memory or their images within the memory become dull. Thus the human memory presents a very intriguing picture. It seems to be a subject with many presenting views and forms. The human memory is very essential for the normal survival of the beings and psychological problems which affect the memory highly affect the quality of life of a person. REFERENCES: Top of Form  Baddeley, A. D. The influence of acoustic and semantic similarity on long-term memory for word sequences. Quart. J. exp. Psychol., 18 (1966): 302-9.      Baddeley, A. D.  Is working memory working? Quarterly Jounal of Experimental Psychology, 44A, (1992):1-31. Conrad, R. Acoustic Confusions in Immediate Memory. British Journal of Psychology, 55, (1964): 75-84.      Laming, D. Analysis of short-term retention: Models for Brown-Peterson experiments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, (1992): 1342-1365.      Miller, G. A. The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information.  Psychological Review, 63, (1956): 81-97. Read More