Short-term Memory

There are two types of memory: short-and long-term. Information in long-term memory can be recalled at a later date if it is needed. The information can be days or weeks. Sometimes information in the long-term memory is hard to remember. Students, the tests often have this experience. In contrast, information in short-term memory is used only for a few seconds, usually by entering the information over and over. For example, if you have a number in the phonebook and select that you repeat over and over. If someone interrupts you, you probably remember the number. In laboratory studies, subjects are unable to remember three letters after eighteen seconds if they are not allowed to repeat the letters themselves. Psychologists study memory and learning in animals and humans. The two experiments show how this short-term memory was. Dr. Hunter studied short-term memory in rats. He uses a special device, which is a cage for the rats and three doors. It was a light in each door. First was the rat in the cage is closed. Next, one of the lighting was switched on and then off. It was food for the rats on this door. After the light was switched off, the rat to wait, had a short time before it was released form the cage. Then, when they are connected to the right door, it was rewarded with food, that was it. Hunter has this experiment many times. He repeatedly pointed out the lighting in a random order. The rat had to wait several intervals before it was released from the cage. Hunter found that if the rat had to wait more than ten seconds, it can not remember the correct door. Hunter's results show that rats have a short-term memory of about ten seconds. Later, Dr. Henning studied how students who learn English as a second language vocabulary recall. The theme in his experiment, 75 students at the University of California at Los Angeles. They represent all levels of ability in English: beginning, intermediate, advanced, and native-speaking students. To begin, the subjects heard a recording of a native speaker reading a paragraph in English. After recording, the subjects have a 15-question test to see which words they remember. Each question has four options. The subjects had to circle the word they had heard in the recording. Some of the questions were four ways that sound alike. For example, weather, whether, to wither, and weather are four words that sound alike. Some of the questions were four possibilities, which have the same meaning. Method, way, way, and would be four words with the same meaning. Some of them had four independent decisions. For example, weather, in a way, love, and the result could be seen as four unrelated words. Finally, the subjects of Language Proficiency Test. Henning found that students with less knowledge of English, the more of their mistakes and words that sound alike, students with higher qualifications, more from their mistakes and words that have the same meaning. Henning results suggest that students of the sound words in their short-term memory, while advanced students consider the meaning of words in their short-term memory.