My Operaduty report speech
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 3:05:36 PM
good night boys and girls, my topic today is human memory.
first, let me ask you a few questions:
1,How does the brain store memories?2, Why do people remember some bits of information but not others? 3,Can people improve their memories? and 4, What is the capacity of memory?
all are interesting, right? but before you bury yourselves into them, think about this: what is memory?
well, most people may say "memory is just a function of human's mind which stores what we have
seen, heard, red or even smelled". That's right, however hardly the whole thing.
in psychology science, memory refers to processes not only those involved in storing information but also those help to encode and retrieve information.
then how does memory work? here is a simplified model in which information that enters the brain is briefly recorded in sensory memory. if we focus our attention on it, the information may become part of working memory(also called short-term memory), where it can be manipulated and used. Through encoding techniques such as repetition, information may be transferred to long-term memory. Retrieving long-term memories makes them active again in working memory.
attention please, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the world of psychology, since we have just encountered three terms of psychology: sensory memory, working memory and long-term memory.
but what are they? well
sensory memory refers to the initial, momentary recording of information in our sensory systems which typically functions outside of awareness and store information for only a very short time. and the information in sensory memory vanishes unless it captures our attention and enters working memory.
the what is working memory? working memory refers to a system that both stores information briefly and allows use of the stored information. what's interesting the figure 7 is a magical number for working memory. why? here comes a story, in the early days research on short-term memory focused on how many items people can correctly recall in order, that is researchers would show people increasingly long sequences of digits or letters and then ask them to recall as many of the items as they could. in 1956 an American psychologist George Miller reviewed the results of many such experiments and concluded that people cold hold an average of seven items in short-memory. you can do such experiments on your selves, and if you get a result bigger than 7, congratulations, you are a super man!
long-term memory describes a system in the brain that can store vast amounts of information on relatively enduring basis. psychologists have different theories about how information enters long-term memory. the traditional view is that the information enters short-term memory and, depending on how it is processed, may be further transferred to long-term memory. however, another view is that short-term memory and long-term are arranged in a parallel rather than sequential fashion., that is, information may be registered simultaneously in the two systems.
well, ladies and gentlemen, let's go back to those questions where we started: How does the brain store memories? Why do people remember some bits of information but not others? Can people improve their memories? What is the capacity of memory?
Do you think, after listening my brief introduction of human brain, we can answer them?......
Of course not, it can't be that easy. but if you are interested, I recommend you search the internet by such key phrases like: encoding and recoding of human memory, memory retrieval, accuracy and distortion of memory, and why people forget.
that's it. thank you!
first, let me ask you a few questions:
1,How does the brain store memories?2, Why do people remember some bits of information but not others? 3,Can people improve their memories? and 4, What is the capacity of memory?
all are interesting, right? but before you bury yourselves into them, think about this: what is memory?
well, most people may say "memory is just a function of human's mind which stores what we have
seen, heard, red or even smelled". That's right, however hardly the whole thing.
in psychology science, memory refers to processes not only those involved in storing information but also those help to encode and retrieve information.
then how does memory work? here is a simplified model in which information that enters the brain is briefly recorded in sensory memory. if we focus our attention on it, the information may become part of working memory(also called short-term memory), where it can be manipulated and used. Through encoding techniques such as repetition, information may be transferred to long-term memory. Retrieving long-term memories makes them active again in working memory.
attention please, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the world of psychology, since we have just encountered three terms of psychology: sensory memory, working memory and long-term memory.
but what are they? well
sensory memory refers to the initial, momentary recording of information in our sensory systems which typically functions outside of awareness and store information for only a very short time. and the information in sensory memory vanishes unless it captures our attention and enters working memory.
the what is working memory? working memory refers to a system that both stores information briefly and allows use of the stored information. what's interesting the figure 7 is a magical number for working memory. why? here comes a story, in the early days research on short-term memory focused on how many items people can correctly recall in order, that is researchers would show people increasingly long sequences of digits or letters and then ask them to recall as many of the items as they could. in 1956 an American psychologist George Miller reviewed the results of many such experiments and concluded that people cold hold an average of seven items in short-memory. you can do such experiments on your selves, and if you get a result bigger than 7, congratulations, you are a super man!
long-term memory describes a system in the brain that can store vast amounts of information on relatively enduring basis. psychologists have different theories about how information enters long-term memory. the traditional view is that the information enters short-term memory and, depending on how it is processed, may be further transferred to long-term memory. however, another view is that short-term memory and long-term are arranged in a parallel rather than sequential fashion., that is, information may be registered simultaneously in the two systems.
well, ladies and gentlemen, let's go back to those questions where we started: How does the brain store memories? Why do people remember some bits of information but not others? Can people improve their memories? What is the capacity of memory?
Do you think, after listening my brief introduction of human brain, we can answer them?......
Of course not, it can't be that easy. but if you are interested, I recommend you search the internet by such key phrases like: encoding and recoding of human memory, memory retrieval, accuracy and distortion of memory, and why people forget.
that's it. thank you!
