Invitation to Psychology

ChaPteR 8 Memory 279

accounting for these findings, and is consistent

with the biological facts about memory. Let us

now peer into each of the “boxes.”

The Sensory Register: Fleeting

impressions LO 8.8

In the three-box model, all incoming sensory in-

formation must make a brief stop in the sensory

register, the entryway of memory. The sensory

register includes a number of separate memory

subsystems, as many as there are senses. Visual im-

ages remain in a visual subsystem for a maximum

of a half-second. Auditory images remain in an

auditory subsystem for a slightly longer time, by

most estimates up to two seconds or so.

The sensory register acts as a holding bin,

retaining information in a highly accurate form

until we can select items for attention from the

stream of stimuli bombarding our senses. It gives

sensory register A

memory system that

momentarily preserves

extremely accurate

images of sensory

information.

You are about to learn...

• how the three “boxes” in the three-box model of
memory operate.

• why short-term memory is like a leaky bucket.

• why a word can feel like it’s “on the tip of your
tongue.”

• the difference between “knowing how” and
“knowing that.”

the three-Box Model

of Memory

The information-processing model of three sepa-
rate memory systems—sensory, short-term, and
long-term—remains a leading approach because
it offers a convenient way to organize the ma-
jor findings on memory, does a good job of

Recite & Review

Recite: To find out how well you’ve encoded and stored the preceding material, retrieve it and say

out loud everything you can about recall, recognition, explicit versus implicit memory, priming, the

relearning method, and models of memory.

Review: Next, go back and read this section again.

Now take this Quick Quiz:

1. Alberta solved a crossword puzzle a few days ago. She no longer recalls the words in the puz-
   zle, but while playing a game of Scrabble, she unconsciously tends to form words that were in
   the puzzle, showing that she has __ memories of some of the words.


2. The three basic memory processes are __, storage, and __.


3. Do the preceding two questions ask for recall, recognition, or relearning? (And what about this
   question?)


4. One objection to traditional information-processing theories of memory is that, unlike most
   computers, the brain performs many independent operations __.
   Answers:

Study and Review at MyPsychLab

The first two questions both measure recall; the third question measures recognition.3. encoding, retrieval2. implicit1.

simultaneously, or in parallel4.

once, and each neuron communicates with thou-
sands of others, which in turn communicate with
millions more.
Because of these differences between human
beings and machines, some cognitive scientists
prefer a parallel distributed processing (PDP) or
connectionist model. Instead of representing in-
formation as flowing from one system to an-
other, a PDP model represents the contents of
memory as connections among a huge number
of interacting processing units, distributed in

parallel distributed

processing (PDP)

model A model of mem-

ory in which knowledge

is represented as connec-

tions among thousands

of interacting processing

units, distributed in a

vast network, and all

operating in parallel. Also

called a connectionist

model.

a vast network and all operating in parallel,

just like the neurons of the brain (McClelland,

1994, 2011; Rumelhart, McClelland, & the PDP

Research Group, 1986). As information enters

the system, the ability of these units to excite

or inhibit each other is constantly adjusted to

reflect new knowledge.

In this chapter, we emphasize the three-

box model, but keep in mind that the computer

metaphor that inspired it could one day be as

outdated as the metaphor of memory as a camera.