Question

PSY - FP: Human memory is often compared to the workings of a computer.

-Based on your own experience, what are the advantages and limits of this comparison?

-How do the features of sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory apply in this comparison?

-How do the key factors and theories of forgetting apply in this comparison?

Answer 1

This comparison has been made quite often. A computer has an input which it then decodes and gives an output as a result.

It is exactly the way the human mind functions, it takes information from the surrounding environment and then decodes it and gives an output as a result, which is the behavior.

This helps in understanding the information that one's precoesses and as a result helps comprehend the behavioral output.

The features of STM and LTM fit right into the parallel. The way in the computer there is the long data reserve and the short data reserve, there is a propensity to have certain things in LTM and certain in STM.

The factor of forgetting accounts into this in terms of the cognitive reserve and the computer drive theory. Although, it is easier to resuscitate information in the computer from it hard drive, and apart from decelerate memory, there is the concept of memory traces that exist for humans as well.