short term memory is a temporary store where small amounts of information can be kept for brief periods of time. it is a fragile store and information can be easily lost. long term memory however is a permanent store where limitless amounts of information can be stored for long periods of time. atkinson and shiffrin made a model for memory, the viewed the memory as a flow diagram. the memory has 3 constraints capacity, duration and encoding. researchers such as atkinson, shiffrin develop their models out of research studies.

sensory memory : a set of limited capacity, modality-specific stores that hold information for a very brief period of time. the three sensory stores involved in input of information into the memory are ionic stores for visual input (things we see), echoic store for auditory input (things we hear) and haptic store for tactile input (things we touch/feel). the purpose of the visual memory is to allow us to integrate visual information so that at a conscious level we experience a smooth, continuous visual experience. like a cartoon you see it as a continuous visual screen but it is actually a series of fast fire photos. another function for the sensory memory is to shift through huge amounts of sensory information by scanning the image to pick out information we don't need to avoid overloading the system. difference between LTM and STM capacity duration

encoding

forgetting

definitions

the amount of information that can be kept in the memory at any one time.

the length of time memories can be held.

the way information is represented in memory stores

information that is lost from memory stores.

STM

very limited
(around 7 items) not very long

mainly acoustic

mainly displacement LTM

unlimited

unlimited (up to a life time)

manly semantic

mainly interference displacement - a type of forgetting where the items currently in the limited capacity (STM) are pushed out before being transferred to the LTM to make room for incoming items interference - a type of forgetting where information stored in LTM us confused with similar information. 3 main types of encoding in the STM acoustic coding: the sound of a stimulus visual coding: the physical appearance of a stimulus semantic coding: the meaning of the stimulus

the main way of encoding in the STM is sound. substitution errors are where we confuse an item with something similar. substitution errors have been used to test for the type of encoding used because you can tell the errors they have made by telling the substitution for example if you confuse the sound of something they are using an acoustic code. working memory: working memory is about how our STM works. the dual task method is where participants are asked to carry out a primary task while also engaging in a secondary task. performance is compared on each of the tasks when done individually.

attachment a bond is a set of feelings that ties one person to another, parents often feel a strong bond with their newborn child. an attachment however is different as it involves 2 people who have an emotional link between each other. a bond between parents and babies are important as babies need support and looking after as they are very vulnerable, they look towards the parent for care, food and protection in order to survive. psychologist are interested in the early months to see if there is a sensitive period for the formation of bonds from the parent and infant. learning theory the learning theory explains attachments as they are based on principles of operant and classical conditioning. first attachments are quite often formed to the person who looks after them and feeds them. positive reinforcement - something which increase the likelihood that something will be repeated. negative reinforcement - when a behaviour response switches off something unpleasant unconditioned stimulus - an aspect of the environment which produces an autonomic (reflex) unlearned response unconditioned response - an unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus. social releasers - infants are born with innate social releasers such as crying and smiling which elicate caregiving.