PSYA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: George Sperling, Clive Wearing, Dead Skunk
Memory
Clive Wearing: had herpes and encephalitis, a high fever, hits the brain area causing
severe damage causing memory problems. Every time Clive sees his wife, he greets
her like it’s been forever since he’s seen her. The wife leaves to the bathroom, comes
back and deals with this greeting over and over again. He still plays piano perfectly
though! GET TO KNOW HIM
Hippocampus is very important in memory, retains new information. If you want to
remember this an hour later it’s the hippocampus that helps you.
Memory - is at place anytime the past influences your present behaviour in any way.
!Clive practiced over and over again for piano which is why he is good now, so he
still has some forms of memory and could learn, but he would not remember learning it.
Human memory:
!Sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory: splits to explicit and
implicit which also split
Memory systems sometimes do their own things and sometimes interact.
“Sensory traces” or stimulus remains after the stimulus is gone. - Called SENSORY
MEMORY, studied by cognitive psychologist called George Sperling.
Sensory memory linked to sensory systems like vision and audition, not really smell.
(concentration of chemical decreases as you go away/sensory adaptation maybe?
example: dead skunk)
!Sperling concentrated more on iconic memory - visual image that is lasting
Holds stimulus for a bit so we can shift our attention and know something was there.
Stays for about a second.
Auditory trace (echoic memory) also lasts, for about three-four seconds. Like when you
say “what?” and then realize what someone said.
Long term could be yesterday, or earlier this morning. As long as you’re not thinking
about it/left your mind and eventually comes back. Think less about it being in or out of
your mind rather than long term or short term.
Short term or working memory: has a limited capacity, is fairly fragile, requires a great
deal of mental effort, once it leaves, it’s gone.
Working memory involves “talking to yourself” (repeating items to yourself), visual
spatial thing, thoughts.
!Chunking example: AJIPOW instead of AJIPOW (as a whole maybe?) <- could
be wrong (combining information and remembering them as chunks), like the horserace
fanatic.
Document Summary
Clive wearing: had herpes and encephalitis, a high fever, hits the brain area causing severe damage causing memory problems. Every time clive sees his wife, he greets her like it"s been forever since he"s seen her. The wife leaves to the bathroom, comes back and deals with this greeting over and over again. Hippocampus is very important in memory, retains new information. If you want to remember this an hour later it"s the hippocampus that helps you. Memory - is at place anytime the past in uences your present behaviour in any way. Clive practiced over and over again for piano which is why he is good now, so he still has some forms of memory and could learn, but he would not remember learning it. Sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory: splits to explicit and. Memory systems sometimes do their own things and sometimes interact. Sensory traces or stimulus remains after the stimulus is gone.
