BESC1490 Introduction to Psychology: Memory and Information Processing

This document presents a comprehensive solution to a psychology assignment focusing on memory and information processing. The assignment delves into the intricacies of memory, outlining the information processing model and exploring sensory, short-term, and long-term memory systems. It defines and explains iconic memory, including its capacity and duration, and illustrates its function with an iconic memory game. The document also covers short-term memory, including its capacity and duration, and uses a game to demonstrate its features. Furthermore, it examines long-term memory, its types, capacity, and duration, and employs a word game to illustrate its functions. The assignment also explores mnemonic devices as tools for enhancing memory and study efficiency. The solution also includes references to academic sources.

Running head : MEMORY AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
MEMORY AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MEMORY AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
Part 1
1. Describe memory and outline the model of information processing.
Memory is the faculty of the brain by which the data and information is encoded,
retrieved and stored when needed. Memory is often understood as the only informational
processing system that is made up of the sensory functions which work for long term and
short term process. The outline of information processing is provided below :
2. Describe sensory information store.
The sensory information store allows the environmental information to be retrained,
sometimes it might be for a faction of a second, after making its way into consciousness.
The sensory memory is known to absorb a tremendous amount of information which is
related to the outer environment. For example seeing something or hearing something in
the outer environment
3. Explain short-term [and working] memory.

2MEMORY AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
Short term memory is known as the memory which has the capacity of holding a very
small amount of information in the mind when its active. For example the short term
memory or the working memory is remembering a person’s contact number when it is
just recited. The duration of the short term memory is believed to complete in few
seconds. Whereas the working memory is a cognitive system of holding the information
with a very limited capacity that has the responsibility of holding a memory for a
temporary purpose.
4. Outline the major types of long term memory. What are mnemonic devices and how can
students make studying (for exams) more efficient?
The two major types of long term memory are declarative and non declarative memory.
The mnemonics devices are certain tools which are used by many people in order to
remember certain things. With the help of the mnemonics the person will be able to
associate with things which he or she needs to remember for a very long period of time. It
is therefore very helpful as because it helps in remembering things very easier, keeps the
information sticking to the brain and also makes things easier to recall when in need of it.
Some of the most common mnemonic devices are acronyms, acrostics, rhymes, songs
and the "Method of Loci" (or mind palace).
5. Why do people forget?
Forgetting can be defined as the inability to retrieve the memory or any kind of
information when needed. According to the author Blumenstock (2018) people might
forget things very easily because it might not be kept in the long term memory in the first
place. Or it might also happen that the information was not coded effectively in the brain.
That is why people forget the information in the future.

3MEMORY AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
Part 2
Sensory information store [iconic memory] –
A ) Iconic memory is the visual sensory memory that is registered to the visual domain
for understanding a visual information.
B )The capacity of iconic memory is 7.3 to 87 seconds for 10 words on an average
basis(Tai, Socher and Manning 2015).
C ) It is the iconic memory game where the player has to memorise various type of
numbers and digits whicvh will be displayed in the board. The iconic memory game was
first built in the year 1990 by an American psychologist. Howeve the game is not limited
to visual aspects only, it is also related with the auditory memory of the brain. The player
has to hold small numbers and word and remember where they were placed before in
order top proceed with the game.
Short term memory –

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E ) Short term memory is known as the memory which has the capacity of holding a very
small amount of information in the mind when its active. For example the short term
memory or the working memory is remembering a person’s contact number when it is
just recited. The duration of the short term memory is believed to complete in few
seconds.
F ) The memory capacity of short term memory is on an average 7 to 10 item s or words.
Whereas, the memory duration of the short term memory is somewhere between 15
seconds to 30 seconds.
G ) This is the game of letter where few letter will be flashing in the computer screen for
few seconds. The person will have to remember the words which will be flashing in the
screen note them down in the brain and jot them down in the table which will be given
below.
Trial # The letters I remember are :
1 U , M
2 T, Z , K, L
3 K, X, C, Z, L
4 A,V,C,I, S
5 L, B, F, Q, R, T
Long term memory – relevance to learner
H ) Long term memory is that memory which is kept in mind indefinitely for a long
period of time. The two types of long term memory are mainly the

5MEMORY AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
Declarative memory consists of facts, general knowledge, and personal
experiences. Whereas, the non declarative memory are known to support the capacity of
the learning habit, perceptual priming and other forms of behaviors (Baddeley and
Warrington 2017).
I ) The duration of the long term memory is from few minutes to life time.
J ) This is also a word game where the person will have to remember able the words and
then jot down all of them which he or she is able to remember.
Part 3
The mnemonic device is very helpful as because it helps in remembering things
very easier, keeps the information sticking to the brain and also makes things easier to
recall when in need of it. The iconic memory games if played on a daily basis will be
able to make the memory morte stronger and help memorizing things in personal life.

6MEMORY AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
References
Baddeley, A.D. and Warrington, E.K., 2017. Amnesia and the distinction between long-and
short-term memory 1. In Exploring Working Memory (pp. 18-38). Routledge.
Tai, K.S., Socher, R. and Manning, C.D., 2015. Improved semantic representations from tree-
structured long short-term memory networks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.00075.
Peters, M.E., Moussawi, K. and Rao, V., 2018. Teaching Clinical Reasoning with an Example
Mnemonic for the Neuropsychiatric Syndromes of Traumatic Brain Injury. Academic
Psychiatry, 42(5), pp.686-689.
Blumenstock, J., 2018. Don’t forget people in the use of big data for development.

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