GI $
UNDERSTANDING LEARNING AND MEMORY 33by the working memory (WM). Everything that can be seen, heard,
or smelled is stored in the STSS, but it only lasts for a matter of sec-
onds before it is forgotten.
Many of the stimuli humans experience never get into our WM
because we do not attend to them. We are constantly barraged with
stimuli from our environment. For example, by the time an individ-
ual wakes up, gets dressed, and walks or drives to class, he or she
observes hundreds, or perhaps thousands of objects that cannot be
recalled. If you drove to class today, do you remember the color or
make of the car next to which you were parked? Do you remember
the student who sat next to you in your first class? What did he or
she wear? If you found the person attractive or interesting, you may
be able to answer these questions, because you may have been atten-
tive to such details. However, the fact is that we are not attentive to
most of what we see or hear in our daily lives.
If you have not attended to information, there is little concern
about retention or retrieval, because no information will have been
acquired. When you attend a lecture and your attention fades in and
out, you will fail to recall some of the important information pre-
sented by the professor. This is why it may be important for you to
improve your attention.
Think about reading a textbook. As you read, you begin think-
ing about the party you are planning to attend next Saturday. When
your mind goes back to the book you realize that you covered two
pages but don’t remember a thing. You read but you do not remem-
ber anything, because you were not paying attention to the words
in the textbook. When students say that they can attend to many
things at one time, they really mean that they can switch their atten-
tion from one task to another. It is difficult to read a textbook and
watch a TV show simultaneously. Information is missed from both
sources.
In summary, unless special attempts are made to attend to and
record information, much of the material in lectures and textbooks is
never stored in memory. Therefore, the information is never learned.
A similar situation occurs when you are introduced to someone and
10 seconds later you cannot remember the person’s name. The prob-
lem is not that you forgot the name but that you never learned it in
the first place. When you mention to friends that you forgot impor-
tant information during an exam, you need to consider whether the
real problem was learning or forgetting.Working Memory
Working memory is the active part of the memory system and has
been described as the center of consciousness in the IPS. Whenever we