PSYC 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Semantic Similarity, Sensory Memory, Memory Span
Document Summary
Memory is a process of encoding (memorizing), storing, and retrieval. Iconic memory- a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second; Echoic memory- momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli. George miller (1956)- magical number of 7 +/- 2 chunks (like abc vs. tzx)for memorizing string of numbers/letters; capacity limit . Acoustic similarity is similarity in sound; semantic similarity is similar in meaning. When people need to memorize in a short term, acoustic similarity seems to be the process behind it (memorizing by sound rather than meaning) Word length effect - the longer a string of words, the harder it is to remember more. Memory span for numbers for those who speak english is greater because the number of syllables we assign per number is fewer, so we have a great capacity than those who speak. Arabic (because their numbers all have two or more syllables)
