Here is the medical term for STM (Short Term Memory)
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7142
Short-term memory: A system for temporarily storing and managing information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. Short-term memory is involved in the selection, initiation, and termination of information-processing functions such as encoding, storing, and retrieving data.
One test of short-term memory is memory span, the number of items, usually words or numbers, that a person can hold onto and recall. In a typical test of memory span, an examiner reads a list of random numbers aloud at about the rate of one number per second. At the end of a sequence, the person being tested is asked to recall the items in order. The average memory span for normal adults is 7.
Short-term memory is also termed recent or working memory.
Visual STM information taken from wiki
In the study of vision, visual short-term memory (VSTM) is one of three broad memory systems including iconic memory and long-term memory. VSTM is a type of short-term memory, but one limited to information within the visual domain.
The term VSTM refers in a theory-neutral manner to the non-permanent storage of visual information over an extended period of time. The Visuospatial Sketchpad is a VSTM subcomponent within the theoretical model of working memory proposed by Alan Baddeley.
Whereas iconic memories are fragile, decay rapidly, and are unable to be actively maintained, visual short-term memories are robust to subsequent stimuli and last over many seconds.
I like the last part where it uses words like fragile and decay to create a visual picture of how memories are perceived.
Like fragile old photos which are decaying because paper doesn't last forever. Further down the page I found a little paragraph about color and memory.
If observers are asked to report on the quality (e.g., color) of an item stored in memory, while performance might be perfect when only a few items are encoded (the number of items that can be perfectly encoded varies depending on the attribute being encoded, but is usually less than five), after which performance invariably declines in a monotonic fashion as more items are added. Different theoretical models have been put forward to explain this decline in performance.
Basically the accuracy of the information is relational and effected by the number of items that need to be remembered. There are different modes all which come to fact that short term memory can only home so many items of information, this is expected to be around 3 to 5 due to experiments.
taken from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578303_1/Memory_(psychology).html
Working memory capacity is correlated with intelligence (as measured by intelligence tests). This correlation has led some psychologists to argue that working memory abilities are essentially those that underlie general intelligence. The more capacity people have to hold information in mind while they think, the more intelligent they are. In addition, research suggests that there are different types of working memory. For example, the ability to hold visual images in mind seems independent from the ability to retain verbal information.
Here it talks about how intelligence of effect by memory and it’s the first time I have come across inteligent's and memory in my research. Its basically saying that inteligent’s effects how much memory you can hold. It also states something which I have already looked into and seams to becoming an underlying theme that, visual memory and audio memory are different from each other and have different properties.
I read on another wiki page about the length of STM storage
The most important characteristic of a short-term store is, clearly, that it is short-term — that is, it retains information for a limited amount of time only. Most definitions of short-term memory limit the duration of storage to less than a minute; no more than about 30 seconds, and in some models as little as 2 seconds. Memory that exceeds short-term memory duration limits is known as long-term memory.
In order to overcome the limitation of short-term memory, and retain information for longer, information must be periodically repeated, or rehearsed — either by articulating it out loud, or by mentally simulating such articulation. In this way, the information will re-enter the short-term store and be retained for a further period. The process of consolidation (transfer of short-term memory to long term memory) is enhanced by the relationship, if any, of an item of short-term memory to an item in long-term memory (for example, if a sensory short-term event is linked to a trauma already in long-term memory).
Again I have already looked at this in little detail. To keep something in the STM it needs to be rehearsed so that it will stay in the STM for usage, example like before a number. I would like to explore some ideas with visual STM and how I can show this form or reparation so that an image will stay clear. Using techniques like blurring and re-tracing old lines would be a good visual start in my opinion. I’m current researching films which have an underlying theme of memory and/or identity and writing up my idea about the film in a review form. A film called 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' showed some amazing interesting ideas which I had already thought about before I had seen the film. One was the use of blurring a face from which someone’s identity is removed because the memory can't be converted from the LTM into the STM. In the case of this film they were delegating the memories from his brain, thus he was unable to recall the memories from his LTM to his STM because they had disappeared.
I realized a lot the research I’m blogging is text heavy and a lot of my visual research is coming from films I’m watching. I later will need to look at artists who use memory as a key concept for their ideas.
Here is quick visualization of an idea I had which links in the idea of computer memory waiting to be downloaded. It looks at the breaking down of the transferring of LTM to STM. Although it might not be a total breakdown it is the waiting to remember. Just like a web browser that is waiting for the information to be downloaded from the server.
My sister is at York University and she had looked at STM and LTM in her psycology work. After asking her for some idvice she sent me a table which helps show the differance between the two.
| | Capacity | Duration | Encoding |
| S | Miller’s | Brown & Peterson suggest 15 to 30 seconds | Conrad suggested only acoustic process. Shulman suggested also visual and semantic processes. |
| T | 7 +/- 2 Chunks | ||
| M | The magical number seven plus or minus two. | ||
| L T M | Unknown and impossible to measure. Maybe limitless. | Relatively permanent. Relates to theories of recall and forgetting. | Declarative and/or Procedural. Declarative may be Semantic and/or Episodic (Tulvig). Baddeley showed process was largely semantic |
Long-term memory (LTM) is memory, stored as meaning, that can last as little as 30 seconds or as long as decades. It differs structurally and functionally from working memory or short-term memory, which ostensibly stores items for only around 30 seconds. Biologically, short-term memory is a temporary potentiation of neural connections that can become long-term memory through the process of rehearsal and meaningful association. The proposed mechanism by which short-term memories move into LTM storage is via long-term potentiation, which leads to a physical change in the structure of neurons. Notably, the time scale involved at each level of memory processing remains under investigation.
As long-term memory is subject to fading in the natural forgetting process, several recalls/retrievals of memory may be needed for long-term memories to last for years, dependent also on the depth of processing. Individual retrievals can take place in increasing intervals in accordance with the principle of spaced repetition. This can happen quite naturally through reflection or deliberate recall, often dependent on the perceived importance of the material.
The last part interests me, as I would like to explore the loss of memory in my work. Natural forgetfulness is talked about here. Here it’s describing how important personal information is recalled often.
LTM is divided into 3 sections. These are Episodic Memory, Semantic Memory and Procedural Memory.
1. Declarative memory refers to all memories that are consciously available. These are encoded by the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and perirhinal cortex, but consolidated and stored elsewhere in the cortex. The precise location of storage is unknown, but the temporal cortex has been proposed as a likely candidate. Declarative memory also has two major subdivisions:
* Episodic memory refers to memory for specific events in time
* Semantic memory refers to knowledge about the external world, such as the function of a pencil.
2. Procedural memory refers to the use of objects or movements of the body, such as how exactly to use a pencil or ride a bicycle. This type of memory is encoded and probably stored by the cerebellum and the striatum.
There is an amazing documentary called 'Unknown White Male' about a man who wakes up on a train and has lost his episodic memory. He doesn't know where or who he is, what his job is, who his family and friends are. He still retains the semantic and procedural memory so he able to perform tasks and know how things act and how things work, so for example he still remember how to talk. I will right a film review about this once I have re-watched this and taken notes about certain areas of interest.
So where now?
Now that I know each area of memory I need to look at how they all work together. Looking at memory models should help me get a better understanding of how memories are created and stored via the 3 classifications of memory.
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