The progress in the theory of the primary memory to the working memory PDF

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The idea is that if the retention interval is short the information is stored in the short-term memory and if the retention interval is long it is stored in the long-term memory. The factors that determine long-term forgetting are different than the factors that determine short-term forgettin...

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THE PROGRESS IN THE THEORY OF THE PRIMARY MEMORY TO THE WORKING MEMORY Primary memory and secondary memory It is not the same to remember something just learned that remember something learned has been a long time, nor is it the same to forget something you just said that something you did a week ago; It seems therefore that there would be two kinds of memory, a temporary memory and a permanent one. W. James called the temporary primary memory and secondary memory to the permanent one; while Stern called them memory mediate and immediate memory respectively. On the other hand, Hebb tried, in 1949, to lay the physiological bases of these two types of memory; According to this there was a certain mechanism or transient state of maintenance of the information which he called ' Assembly of reverberating neurons '. Hebb understood memory as a neural change that takes time. The Sensory memory Previous studies gave rise to the postulate of another type of memory, the transient memory, which is composed of short-term or working memory and a sensory memory. The concept of working memory (short-term) initially appeared in the theories of verbal learning, but did not give it much importance. Short-and long-term retention The idea is that if the retention interval is short the information is stored in shortterm memory and if the retention interval is long it is stored in long-term memory. The factors that determine long-term forgetfulness are different than the factors that determine short-term forgetfulness. This idea arises from two studies: the study of retroactive inhibition and the study of the serial position curve. Short-term retroactive inhibition Studies on retroactive inhibition tried to explain why the short-term forgetfulness occurred, using the Distractor task procedure. Researchers: Brown, Peterson and Peterson. The task consisted in the learning of three-letter series, then the subject was carried out a memory test. It was found that there was a strong forgetfulness in

the short term, allegedly produced by the interference, because in the task are learned associations and the task distracting also. However, interference occurs only if there is a similarity between task and distraction task. In the study of Peterson and Peterson in the task must remember letters and the task distracting numbers, are not similar, therefore could not explain the forgetfulness in terms of interference. In Brown's study both the task and the distracting task is the memory of letters, however no changes were produced with respect to the other experiment. Conclusion: It is not possible to explain short-term forgetfulness in terms of the theory of interference. The two memory systems were postulated. A short-term memory system in which forgetfulness occurs by decay and a short-term system in which no one knows why oblivion occurs. Short-term forgetfulness in a distracting task situation is explained because the task prevents the review of the main task. Years later, in 66, Posne and Rossman demonstrated this: the greater the amount of processing of the major distracting task was oblivion, because it is not possible to review. The serial position curve This curve is obtained when the subjects learn a list of items and a percentage of memory curve is made in which it is observed that the subjects better remember the first and the last items. These studies consolidate the theories of the two memory systems. The most remembrance effect of the first items is called primacy. The most remembrance effect of the last items is called a prayer. These effects are explained by the existence of two memory systems: While the first items are more likely to move to long-term memory, the last items are still in short-term memory. Confirmation experiments: If we assume that the prayer is produced by the existence of a short-term memory, we will confirm the theory by manipulating the task experimentally so that the last items cannot be in the short-term memory; If the memory decreases, the assumption will be confirmed. Postman and Philips and Glanzer and Cunitz performed this experiment by introducing a distractor task into the retention interval and increasing it. Experimental conditions: I-Retention Interval of 10 sec. No distracting task.

II-10 sec retention interval. With Distractionary task. III-30 sec retention interval. With Distractionary task. The theory is confirmed, since the percentage of memory decreases from the first experimental condition to the last. If we prevent the last items from being in short-term memory, they will be remembered to the extent that they enter the long-term memory, so it depends on the number of review (as seen in the second experiment); If the number of repasses of the last items is lower than that of the intermediate items, the percentage of remembrance should be lower in the last than in the intermediate ones, however in the experimental condition III of Postman and Philips the Remembrance of the latter is equal to that of the midwayers. This occurs because the last items are not completely prevented from being in short-term memory; If a method was used to prevent it completely, the described effect called negative recession would occur. Subsequently, Craik demonstrated the negative-proof effect using a procedure that consists of having the subjects learn several lists of items and, after checking the normal effect of the serial position curve, perform a memory test With all the items on all the lists together. So the last items in the first list are no longer in short-term memory because ten more lists have been learned. If you perform a serial position curve with this memory test it is verified that the last items are remembered worse than the rest. If we assume that the primacy occurs because the first items are reviewed as you learn the list and therefore are more likely to enter the long-term memory, we can check it experimentally through an open review procedure. Rundus, in 1971, conducted an experiment to try to check how subjects reviewed through the Open review procedure to see how many times each item is reviewed. Superimposed a percentage curve of memories on a curve of the number of repasses. Results: The highest percentage of remembrance in the first items coincides with the greatest number of review, this seems to demonstrate that the primacy is produced by long-term memory.

Multistore theories During the 1940s in psychology it was thought that you could not study the mind in depth because of the lack of appropriate tools and methodology. However, there were important problems in real life in the field of care, especially related to war surveillance; This is how this mental phenomenon began to be seriously studied.

The field of Information theory was a rather important field then, related to communication engineering, mostly based on the transmission of information. The main objective was to transmit in a clear way and, above all, to increase the transmission capacity. In the field of communication engineering there is an emitter, which produces a message, which is translated by a transmitter into an electrical signal by means of a code; The receiver transforms the electrical signals again into speech. The engineers then posed the capacity of the channel. This example could be equated in some way with the human mind; There were concepts such as coding, or capacity constraints, which were studied by psychology and other derivatives of the theory of information using engineering studies. The information theory has two ballasts: The conception that the processes have a sequential or serial character, which gave rise to erroneous interpretations, because the mind processes in parallel. The models of this theory are stages through which the information suffers variations, are called Multistore models. As a consequence of the theory of the information arose the model of Broadbent (1958), which was the first model of MEMORY: the input information enters and passes through a filter or channel that has a limited capacity, FROM here it can pass to the MLP . Broadbent conducted experiments of divided amplitude with numbers (listen to dichotic) and concluded that the subjects remembered the numbers in the same order (first those of one ear and then those of the other). Thus it postulated that there was some form of retention in the intermediate step which called catch (or buffer) which is THE sensory memory (MS), subsequently MCP. In conclusion Broadbent described the different stages that went through the information. In the memory field these stadiums became locally stable structures and stores (Multistore theories). The influence of the information theory provoked a new conception of the memory and contributed to certain progress in this field. This theory showed a large interest in MCP's capacity constraints. G. Miller, in an article of 1956, stated that people had a capacity of seven ELEMENTS in the MCP; After many experiments in different fields (perception, memory...) It proved that all these fields had something to do with this capacity. Miller started his work from the point of view of information theory, based on information units (BITS). In his experiments he sometimes found subjects who

were able to retain many more units of information than seven (then his claim did not seem very accurate), but he saw that in these cases the cause was that this information could be organized in less Units, ie, could regroup. The bottom line is that people structure information in meaningful units to solve MCP's capacity problems, that is to say we recode in propositional ' packages ' or images; To do this it is necessary to use the previous knowledge. Miller Advances in the theory of information saying that one cannot study the mind in terms of capacity but according to the structure that we are able to impose to the information in function of the previous knowledge. The distinction between two systems of memory implies that the difference is structural, that is to say, that the two systems of memory are two different structures; However the theory of the information gives an image of different stadiums in the systems of memory. All this reinforces the idea that the systems of MCP and MLP can be conceived as warehouse spaces, as long as they are structures, which gives rise to multistore theories. This idea was imposed by the influence of the theory of the information and the experiments of verbal learning; Although the MLP seems to be clearly a warehouse the doubt would be in if it is also the MCP, today we know that it is not. The model of Waugh and Norman It is the first study or experiment that was made on multistore theories. They used the concepts of primary memory and secondary memory. Waugh and Norman postulate the independence of the two stores among themselves; His research work focuses on characterizing THE MCP's warehouse. A possible MCP feature, which was finally not confirmed, is that the information contained in this store is in a certain code, which is the verbal code. Despite the independence between MCP and MLP, the information that reaches the MLP must have passed through the MCP; And on the contrary, all the information stored in the MCP has some probability of going to the MLP. If short-term memory is a physical storage space, decayed information may be lost or because, being a limited-capacity store, if it is already at the limit of its capacity, the new information that enters displaces the information inside. Waugh and Norman performed an experiment using the digit-test procedure: The subject listens to a number of numbers and at the end a tone and another number, called the digit-test, after which he has to say what number followed him in the series the last time he showed up.

If the test digit is among the last numbers the subject will be right because the information is in the MCP (this procedure is usually used to measure the amplitude of the MCP). It is verified that there is a certain probability that the numbers that are not in the MCP are in the MLP. Increasing the time between numbers it was found that memory loss is not caused by decay, as there was no forgetfulness. Waugh and Norman postulate the existence of two warehouses as physical structures based on: On the one hand in their experiments, according to which the information of the MCP is lost by displacement, although this is not a conclusive proof that the MCP is a structural warehouse. On the other hand in another type of data; They analyzed the retention curves and looked like they had a cut, as there was an area of the curve that is remembered very easily and another that not so much; This led many people to think that there was no continuity between the MCP and the MLP, i.e. they were independent. Starting from Waugh and Norman The people conceived the memory as store and in addition the concept of sensory memory was introduced. The sensory memory arises as a consequence of the detent of the Broadbentmodel, and begins to be called sensory memory with the experiments of Spearling (in visual modality), Moray, Bates and Barnett (in auditory mode) and Gilson and Baddeley (in tactile mode). Smith and Schiller and Turvey subsequently demonstrated that the locus of sensory memory persistence was not related to the senses, was not peripheral, but had a certain central character. From Waugh and Norman the idea of the existence of three independent warehouses was established, the short term warehouse, the long term warehouse and the sensory store. Not all the information that enters the MCP goes to the MLP, what determines what information is lost and what information passes to the MLP?, according to the studies of these two authors is the time that the information remains in the ACP; The function of the review processes is to prolong the time of stay of the information in this warehouse. Learning is to get the information transferred from the MCP to the MLP, then Confluirán studies on memory and learning studies.

Psychoanalysis has an important theory about memory and forgetfulness: the suppression of unpleasant events what happens is that unpleasant memories are not reviewed. The Atkinson and Shiffrin model In this model there are three warehouses: The sensory warehouse, in which there are various registrars or substores of the different sensory modalities. The information in this warehouse is lost by decay. The long-term warehouse. The short-term store, this warehouse space has an auditoryverbal-linguistic component, ie, the information is in this code. Atkinson and Shiffrin incorporate to THE MCP the review processes, which according to them takes place in a substructure of THE MCP that they call repass catch, in it there are different slots that depend on our amplitude of memory; the Information contained in the review retainer would be lost by displacement, when there are elements in all the slots and more are introduced for review, the new information displaces any of the above elements-in principle is no longer review The first slot and there is a new reorganization of the restIn the model Atkinson and Shiffrin is the subject that decides what to review, are processes of review under the control of the subject, This implies an important advance against the alleged passivity of the subject in the review processes that Conceived previously. Experiment: To try to find out how the Atkinson and Shiffrin review processes performed experiments using the associated pair procedure. Stimuli-the first pair stimulus was a double digit figure and the second was a letter from the alphabet. The interval between pairs was 11 seconds. Task-when it appeared a figure that had already appeared with a different letter, the subjects had to say with which letter it had been paired previously. They studied an important variable that they called interim, which is the number of pairs between two digits that are repeated. Results: If the meantime was small (approximately 2) the memory was very high since the first figure was very possibly in the catch. If the interim was longer (6 or more) Two things could occur: that the subject would remember the first figure, because the information had passed to the MLP; Or that he did not remember, this could be because the information had been lost from the catch or because the subject had not wanted to review it.

If you enter as a variable the review (undercover/open) it is possible to find out what those review control processes are. The transfer of information from the MCP to the MLP depends on the review processes, which are learning processes. If an open review procedure is used, this statement can be confirmed; Atkinson and Shiffrinthey introduced this variable in the experiment by manipulating the number of times each item is reviewed. They concluded that the transfer of information depended on two factors: The number of repasses, so that the higher the number the more likely it is that the information is transferred to the MLP because it is more time in the MCP. The time elapsed since the last review, so that the more time elapsed the less the probability of transfer. From the veracity of the first factor there are conclusive data, of the second one, although there are consistent data, are not conclusive. The evolution of the Atkinson and Shiffrin theory will be the CONCEPTION of the MCP as a set of processes and not as a warehouse. From these two authors began to study the nature of the review, since Atkinson and Shiffrin assumed that the review carried out by the subjects was a mere repetition that prolonged the stay OF information in the MCP, but could not Know for sure. They began to design experiments in which they saw that the subjects were going over and how. Woodward, Bjork and Jorgenwardexperiment: The subjects were to learn a series of items but through a special procedure, after the presentation of each item (word) There was a blank interval and a signal (tone) indicating whether the item Should be forgotten or remembered; In the memory test, the subjects were asked to say all the words they had been told to remember. This procedure ensures that during the white period the subjects will maintain the item by repeating (mechanical review or Type 1). The variation in the amplitude of the blank range was used as an independent variable; The expected results were that the greater the white interval, the more repetitions the subject would make, so the information would stay longer in the MCP and would be more likely to pass to the MLP, had to remember the item or not. The results obtained did not coincide with those expected, that is to say, no differences were produced with intervals than with others. Conclusion: the transfer of information to the MLP is not facilitated by keeping it more time in the MCP, but by the processes that the subjects perform during the review.

Bjork Experiment to find out why review processes facilitate the transfer OF information to MLP: subjects have to learn 20 lists of six words each (because six is the normal LIMIT of the MCP's amplitude), 20 seconds After the learning of each list they are made a memory test (MCP Intermediate tests), and in the end (without having told them anything) they are made a memory test of all the lists (final Test of MLP). With the final test it's about figuring out what information has happened to the MLP. Introduces two experimental conditions using the instructions: subjects are told to review half of the lists in a mechanical manner, by repetition (maintenance review or type 1)-Experimental condition 1-and the other half of the Lists through process elaboration to facilitate the memory ( Elaboration review or type 2)-Experimental condition 2-. The elaboration review consists of establishing relationships between words and concepts. Bjork believed that the transfer of information depended on the type of review. Experimental results: In the intermediate tests more recalled the lists reviewed by Type 1, while in the final test were remembered more lists reviewed by Type 2, therefore in the intermediate tests is more effective maintenance review And in the final Test the elaboration review is more effective. Conclusion: the transfer of information to the MLP is not facilitated by the time...