Memory and Encoding
Thomas is discreetly looking at that girl trying to figure out her name. He knows that he has met her before but is having a hard time remembering where. Her face is so familiar to him and then he starts to wonder why he can remember her face and not her name. This situation comes down to Thomas’ memory and how he encoded the information of where, when, and how he met this girl and her name. Memory is defined as the structures and processes used for the storage and retrieval of information. Encoding is defined as the transfer of information into the memory system. This is done at different levels.
Memory information takes many forms. When any information comes into us, it has to be changed so that it can be stored. A good example of this would be switching your money when traveling (McLeod, 2008). The three ways information is encoded is visual or picture, acoustic or sound, and semantic or meaning. Rehearsal would be an example of verbal process even if it was a list read out loud or just read in your head (McLeod, 2008).
Short-term memory has limited capacity, limited duration and uses encoding. Long-term memory is unlimited information we have stored and can be held for our lifetime. If we forget something from our short-term memory, it would be because of trace decay and displacement (McLeod, 2009). If we forget something from long-term memory, it would be because of interference and lack of consolidation. Trace decay is forgetting that occurs because of a fading memory trace focusing on the time that has passed (McLeod, 2009). This would be Thomas’s case in forgetting that girl’s name talked about earlier. He only held her name in his short-term memory for 15 to 30 seconds since he was not rehearsing it over and over again.
I cannot even tell you how many times this has happened to me. I was told to go downstairs to get some water, my book bag, and my mom’s letter the other night. I was thinking of other things, got downstairs, and had to holler back up
Memory information takes many forms. When any information comes into us, it has to be changed so that it can be stored. A good example of this would be switching your money when traveling (McLeod, 2008). The three ways information is encoded is visual or picture, acoustic or sound, and semantic or meaning. Rehearsal would be an example of verbal process even if it was a list read out loud or just read in your head (McLeod, 2008).
Short-term memory has limited capacity, limited duration and uses encoding. Long-term memory is unlimited information we have stored and can be held for our lifetime. If we forget something from our short-term memory, it would be because of trace decay and displacement (McLeod, 2009). If we forget something from long-term memory, it would be because of interference and lack of consolidation. Trace decay is forgetting that occurs because of a fading memory trace focusing on the time that has passed (McLeod, 2009). This would be Thomas’s case in forgetting that girl’s name talked about earlier. He only held her name in his short-term memory for 15 to 30 seconds since he was not rehearsing it over and over again.
I cannot even tell you how many times this has happened to me. I was told to go downstairs to get some water, my book bag, and my mom’s letter the other night. I was thinking of other things, got downstairs, and had to holler back up
References: McLeod, S. A. (2008). Forgetting. - Simply Psychology. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/forgetting.html McLeod, S. A. (2009). Short term memory. - Simply Psychology. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/short-term-memory.html