what is memory for ?

Memory - The mysterious phenomenon

Memory , a phenomenon which has been bewildering scientists and philosophers is san entity that needs to be analyzed very carefully for finding out the truth behind it . Going deep in to the subject , memory comes under a prominent branch of neuroscience called the cognitive neuroscience

The basic factors that lead to the phenomenon of memory are reception of information , processing , storage and recollection . There are various factors that affect each of these processes . Based on this memory is broadly classified in to three heads . They are p

long-term memory 2 ) short-term memory and 3 ) sensory memory

Long-term memory

Long term memory refers to those memories that are stored in the brain for a considerably prolonged period of time with out any loss . Here when an idea is stored in long-term memory , the information is stored in a semantically encoded format . As a result of this it is easier for us to remember a telephone number by virtue of repeating the same but it is difficult to memorize a random ten digit number . For the later case the encoding format is acoustic and hence the information is stored in short-term memory . Baddeley , the great researcher on human memory has found out that when given a test to recollect words uttered was given to a group of respondents the result was that people failed to recall words with same meanings like small , tiny , minute etc

Short-term memory

This is a much more volatile memory that stores information just for a period of several seconds to few minutes with out memorizing it by heart . George A . Miller , held various demonstrations and the conclusion was that the storage capacity of short -term memory was just 7 - 2 entities (he presented a entitled "The magical number 7 -2 . In the present day the projected capability of short-term memory is still less . But hen the same group of words or letters , for an example is presented in different , greater are the chances for recollecting it

For example it is difficult to recollect the string

FBIUNOASDFUS

But when the same string is presented as below , greater chances re there for anyone to recollect it

FBI UNO ASDF US

In the first combination of letters the information was lying stray with no to memorise , whereas in the second one , they have an opportunity to memorise it as bits which could be identified to something that they know

Short-term memory relies on the phonemes and the acoustic symbols for retaining information . Visual codes are rarely converted to short-term memory . Conrad a renowned researcher on human memory found out that the subjects of his experiments had difficulty in identifying and recollecting acoustically confusing phonemes and words like he , ghee bee , see , etc

Sensory memory

This kind of memory refers to the memory that is retained in the receivers mind for about 200 to 500 milliseconds , once the information is acquired . Hence this is highly volatile and short-life memory Sensory Memory can be identified as...