Question

What is the structure of memory and the capacity and duration of each part?

Answer 1

Memory consist of three parts according to Atkinson and Shifron model; where each information gets filtered at each part.

1. Sensory memoy- It's the first contact through which information is received by the body. It can be through any of the senses i.e. visual, taste, touch, sound or smell. Here the duration of information is very less, it doesn't stay long here.

All the information that gets selectively attended to by the individual goes to short-term memory. By selectively attending I mean putting focus on only few particular sensory information. For eg- at any given point of time, there are hundereds of sensory information with the individual, but he/she chooses which one is important at that specific time and only that information goes ahead.

2. Short-term memory- Here, the memory stays for maximum 30 seconds. The information that was selectively attended to from sensory memory gets to short-term memory where it is processed further and here the information's importance is again checked and is validated by the individual. It includes the information the person is conscious about and the information regarding the present situation.

An individual can enhance the capacity of their short-term memory by using a technique called chunking. Chunking incolves dividing information into fewer chunks and remembring those chunks to make the memory better. For eg- if you have to learn a number 7890654379 you can dividide it into 789-065-4379

For an information to go from short-term memory to long-term memory there are two processes-

a) Elaborative rehearsal- where an individual understand the deeper meaning of the information and then remember it.

b) Maintenance rehearsal- where the individual repeat the information (without understanding it ) until it gets stored to long-term.

The best way to store an information in long-term is through elaborative rehearsal.

3. Long-term memory- here, the information can be stored for lifetime, it's capacty is infinite. An information stored here might be difficult for the individual to retrieve; therefore a lot of times individual use cues to retrieve it.