Short-Term Memory and Working Memory (Intro Psych Tutorial #72)

www.psychexamreview.com
In this video I cover the second box in the 3-box model, short-term memory, in greater detail. I explain the limited capacity of this store, George Miller's “Magical Number 7”, and how organizational encoding and chunking may appear to expand this capacity without necessarily increasing the number of “items” being held. This concept of organizing and manipulating information in this store brings us to Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch's model of working memory. This model includes 4 main parts; a central executive, the visuospatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, and the episodic buffer (added later). This working memory model accounts for our ability to manipulate incoming information and also draw upon existing long-term memory.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel to see future videos! Have questions or topics you’d like to see covered in a future video? Let me know by commenting or sending me an email!
Check out my psychology guide: Master Introductory Psychology, a low-priced alternative to a traditional textbook: amzn.to/2eTqm5s
George Miller - The Magical Number 7 Plus or Minus 2
psychclassics.yorku.ca/Miller/

[@genevrawillcox9289]

Thank you for explaining what 2 textbooks and 2 lectures could not. You are a gifted communicator.

[@armaandhanji2112]

You offer the best set of lectures online in terms of explaining how memory works. This channel should be the number one channel visited for this sort of thing. Thanks!

[@PsychExamReview]

Armaan Dhanji Thanks, I really appreciate that and I'm glad you've found my videos helpful!

[@paolavega2400]

Well it actually IS number one for me!

[@rhyannon8843]

Am I the only one who giggled at 8:54 when Michael forgot something (and smiled) during a video explaining memory theory? XD Honestly, your videos are absolutely cracking and really helping me to understand my course and answer my assignments.

[@PsychExamReview]

Glad to hear that!

[@aridrubelle4420]

Thank you!!! I am listening to your lectures while reviewing my notes and it's very effective in making me remember and understand everything. Kudos to you!

[@PsychExamReview]

I'm glad it's helpful, thanks for watching!

[@ahmadadel33]

Life saver. ❤️ Thank you for your time. Everything sounds and lokks smoother after watching you explaining. Thank you once again.

[@PsychExamReview]

You're very welcome, I'm glad to hear that my videos are helpful for you, thanks for commenting!

[@DarkoPorsche]

You are diffently one of the top best to explain this theme :) Many thanks.

[@HerTheOneAndOnly]

My hero! Binging for my exam tomorrow because there is no better way to study. You just saved a life.

[@PsychExamReview]

Haha, best of luck on your exam!

[@IdealistINFP]

You should check out some memory strategies and test your theory about the best way to study. Though you’re likely done your entire program by now.

[@tinkerbell_faye]

Thank you so much for your Playlist on memory! It's helping reconsolidate my learning in a clear and straightforward way.

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome, glad to hear that!

[@nuralyyanajihah]

Thank you for the explanation. It helps me a lot in understanding the terms. Hats off, you did great!

[@PsychExamReview]

Thanks, glad to hear it was helpful!

[@lalitakoshyari489]

Probably the best lectures i ever came across!! thank you so much, your lecturers are very helpful😃

[@PsychExamReview]

Thanks, I'm really glad to hear that!

[@rubysroom4347]

Love your lectures! Every detail is well explained and is easy to comprehend

[@PsychExamReview]

Glad to hear that, thanks for commenting!

[@matthewwhite8484]

“How are waiters able to do that?” *waiter gets like half the order wrong*

[@arhamashamssheikh2644]

Thank you sir for providing us with such a simplistic and authentic explanation. Your work is much appreciated sir 😊

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome, thanks for commenting!

[@madesimple445]

You are an extremely gifted teacher, thank you.

[@PsychExamReview]

Thanks, glad you like my teaching!

[@seemaairi840]

Missed a lot of my lectures at school. Helped me understand it way better. Thank u so much ♥️

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome!

[@paigewilliams6000]

Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for posting this. I am taking Cognition online, and the professor doesn't lecture. I learn better by looking at a person and hearing a lecture- than simply reading a chapter. I wish I would have found this earlier in my semester. I feel I would've done significantly better.

[@PsychExamReview]

Sorry you found them a bit late but glad my videos can help now!

[@vaishnavinambiar6692]

Thank you so much.... your explanation was very clear and it solved almost all my doubts! Big big thanks to you

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome!

[@amar-td4zs]

amazing articulation of concepts michael, your knowledge-depth speaks for itself, pleased to learn from you.

[@PsychExamReview]

Thanks!

[@JayaVerma]

Thank you so much for such lucid and simple lecture series.

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome!

[@oogaboogass]

I'm thankful to you today 😭

[@wino4ever1]

Thank you for these online lectures. I love these. You have a way of making psychology very understandable and easily approachable. I am studying psychology online for open university and reading a lot about the same things you teach but I think I learn more by watching your lectures than just reading.

[@wino4ever1]

And just wanted to add that here in Finland they added one of your youtube-videos in the course material on cognitive psychology.

[@PsychExamReview]

I'm really glad to hear that, thanks for commenting!

[@solomontruthlover5308]

Great job as always thank you 👍

[@noorfatima4620]

firstly thanks to you ..you way to deliver lecture great ....

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome, thanks for watching!

[@zahraaa.n.7744]

beautiful lecture and beautiful man.. thanks

[@dremasonam2098]

Loved it man

[@Lyxx_5219]

Thank you so much for making this videos!!!!

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome, glad you like them!

[@soraay]

Thank you so much!!

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome!

[@somyakumarsingh8119]

my exam tomorrow and here you are saving me!

[@PsychExamReview]

Best of luck on your exam, hope I was able to help!

[@sankhayanbhaumik6452]

Thank you so much sir.......

[@hananalraeesi6704]

Thank you a lot for this amazing lecture

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome!

[@ileenalex1753]

thank you it really helped me, hope you can make more videos

[@PsychExamReview]

Ailin Alexin Glad to hear that, I'll keep making more!

[@Dani-ge1zw]

This was so good

[@TucanaOT]

from Jordan at middle east , im so glad that i find this ! i prayed to Allah to facilitate my learning journey and this is the first sign , thank you sooooo much .

[@PsychExamReview]

I'm glad you found my videos, I hope they help, let me know if you have any questions!

[@TucanaOT]

@@PsychExamReview thanx for ur kindness , it means alot to me to learn from an excellent channel like this , how can we contact you if we have any questions ? actually i have one right now , what is ur college major and what is ur field of work right now ? - i ask this in order to make it easier to me when i descide to have post degree cirtification - .

[@PsychExamReview]

@@TucanaOT Sure, you can post questions in the comments for any relevant videos so others can also see my responses or you can email psychexamreview at gmail.com I studied psychology as an undergraduate and I've been teaching IB and AP psychology courses at an international high school for about 10 years.

[@TucanaOT]

@@PsychExamReview wow this is amazing ! i studied Occupational therapy and i work with childern with Autism right now so it means alot to me to know "behind the seen " info , i didn't know that psychology has these info actually ! maybe this depends on how powerful our universities comparing to other more powerful universities in the world . .. thank you for your responding 🌸.

[@PsychExamReview]

@@TucanaOT My pleasure, thanks for commenting!

[@Rimsha0124]

Short term memory simple stores information for a short like word span, Digit span, letter span). While working memory retains the information in order to manipulation. Such as like Reading span, counting span, operating Span). also include Short term memory are simply spain task's (digit span) while Working memory is commonly measured using complex span tasks.

[@pnjodaro]

Thanks man👍

[@mr_delivery]

very helpfull and nice presentation for me as a PSY student please go on we are looking for ward for new videos.

[@PsychExamReview]

Hopefully I'll be able to get back to making new videos soon!

[@ebrugol8955]

Thank you!

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome!

[@qR7pK9sJ2t]

Excellent narration..Love from INDIA

[@PsychExamReview]

Thanks!

[@belindasims5290]

Great. Very helpful 👌

[@PsychExamReview]

Glad to hear that!

[@rubilopezcano4903]

Great video! Going back to keep working on my paper. How funny that he forgot the term "episodic buffer" for a quick second.

[@PsychExamReview]

Thanks!

[@HarmonicPolyphonic]

Thankyou!!

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome!

[@Rimsha0124]

STM Short term memory: Capable of staring information for some what longer period but also of relatively limited capacity. While Working memory holds only the most recently activated portion of long Term memory,and it moves these activated elements into and out of brief temporary memory storage .

[@Rimsha0124]

Good job Sir Well done 👍

[@PsychExamReview]

Thanks 👍

[@j.j.3759]

Thank you so much for these videos. I'm an American but studying in Germany. My German is good, but obviously my English is better. These videos are a life saver!

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome. I'm glad to hear that my videos are helpful for you and best of luck in your studies!

[@ebrahimbabaei9468]

This is a great lecture. Even for me as a computer scientist, everything was clear and easy to follow. If I want to learn more about the short term and working memory, what do you suggest me to read or watch?

[@PsychExamReview]

If you'd like to read more of the details of the model you can search for some of Alan Baddeley's papers as a starting point. For more on practical applications I'm planning a video which will be ready soon on applying this to learning and studying as part of my How to Study Effectively series.

[@ethel5314]

Thank you so much sir I have exams in a week. Wish me luck

[@PsychExamReview]

Hope this helps, good luck on your exam!

[@xxelsanti5086]

i have an exam in 3 days, hope this will work. Thank you

[@PsychExamReview]

You're welcome, best of luck on the exam!

[@tonysmilemusic7714]

5:00 working memory

[@fatihakhan4381]

can you recommend some of the mental or physical exercises to improve our working memory.

[@PsychExamReview]

Unfortunately I can't recommend an intervention that can truly increase your working memory across all tasks. Though there have been occasional claims of interventions increasing working memory, they haven't replicated well. That's the bad news. Here's the good news. There are other ways to improve your performance even if your working memory can't be increased. Nearly any kind of physical exercise (aerobic or strength training) can help to improve your performance on cognitive tasks, so just find something you enjoy and do it regularly. As for mental exercises, it doesn't seem possible to increase your working memory across all domains but you can improve your efficiency within single areas. What do I mean? By practicing certain tasks repeatedly you can reduce the load on your working memory because those aspects become automated. A good example is reading: if you need to hold individual letters and their pronunciations in your working memory in order to read, getting through a long sentence will be impossible (because you also need to hold the meaning and ideas from previous words in working memory too and it's simply too much). With practice, you no longer need to work with individual letters and can focus just on the meaning of the words. With even more reading practice, recognizing the meaning of words as you read happens automatically and now your working memory is free to just focus on the implications of what you're reading, the style, etc. This means you just need to identify what processes should be automated in order to free up your working memory to devote its capacity to the more challenging aspects of whatever you're doing. This will be specific to certain tasks, so I don't have any general exercises but a general recommendation: identify what you want to improve at and then work to automate as many of the basic components as possible. You won't increase your working memory, but you'll reduce how much relevant information you need to hold in it at any time. I hope this helps!

[@marcinklimko55]

The inner voice is dependent on the subvocalization (larynx movements and other muscles), so we use body to help auditory imagery, the visual imagery requires the "inner scribe" but which muscles does it use? If not eye movement, than what ? Tense face muscles ? Or it is not supported by body work as phonological loop is ?

[@PsychExamReview]

I apologize for the delay in responding, for some reason your comment ended up in the spam folder even though it's a great question. I don't have a clear answer, but perhaps I can point you in the direction of some related theories. There may be a relationship between eye movements and the encoding and retrieval of visual information (known as scanpath theory). Eye movements may also relate to the vividness of mental imagery. This might be demonstrated in eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), which is used for treating disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

[@lisantesema3329]

you are diffrent keep going

[@anjali1984]

From india❤️ nd thankyou sir for this👍🏼

[@ivansugar4613]

The best

[@kavyareddy6335]

Your videos have helped me a lot in scoring! Thank you. Can I know which software you have used to write and record yourself at the same time?

[@PsychExamReview]

Glad to hear that! I use Camtasia to record the video and screen at the same time.

[@kavyareddy6335]

@@PsychExamReview Thank you!!

[@theexplorerofpositiveenerg7904]

what about when you remember smells and feelings or pain.is that not memory and where is it categorised here?

[@PsychExamReview]

This is a great question because it points out that memory is a complex system with multiple components that don't neatly fit into boxes and are hard to categorize. When we consider something seemingly simple like a smell it may relate to memories of our personal experience (episodic memory), we may have factual aspects to identifying the smell (semantic memory), and it may trigger unconscious associations that we aren't fully aware of (implicit memory). All of these may be happening at once and models necessarily simplify this complexity to help us understand some aspects of memory - hence the expression "all models are wrong, but some are useful".

[@maxchronos4567]

8:54 , short-term memory being faulty. just kidding. liked your video. haha

[@yuktakhatri8043]

Hey! I am just looking for your videos on attitude and prejudice. Please let me know if there any

[@PsychExamReview]

Sure, you can find some videos on these topics in this playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLkKvotUGCyLeGEw0yeNvcWzmiBpxWzC4l

[@mrimperfect1483]

There's always a question in my mind that if we're just possessing a very limited working memory capacity, then how are we able to read books of 100s of pages at one time which is having the lots of information and watching the movies of 2 hrs and litening to the lengthy podcasts. would you please answer this?

[@PsychExamReview]

Great question! Our long-term memory is considered to have an unlimited (or at least unknown) capacity, so once things are moved to long-term memory this frees up space in our working memory. That said, not all of this information will be remembered forever, so practice reviewing and retrieving memories is necessary to keep them in long-term memory. We can also create chunks of information in long-term memory by connecting things we know and this allows us to pull more information into working memory at once. Each chunk counts as one item in working memory but actually contains many parts connected to it. For example, chess experts can look at a board and remember entire layouts, not because they can put all the individual pieces into working memory, but because they recognize common patterns in their long-term memory. Remembering a few of these patterns allows them to recreate the positions of all the pieces on the board. I'm planning to make a video on this topic as part of the How to Study series so hopefully I can provide more examples and clarification in that video. Thanks for commenting!

[@IdealistINFP]

A “How to Study” series would be incredible. I work in a school (as a school-based counsellor) and I see stresses around school performance on a very regular basis. I have teachers tell me that nearly their entire class has varying degrees of anxiety around their academics. With this, I don’t mean within optimal levels of anxiety within the inverted-U in the Yerkes-Dodson Law. I mean primarily well beyond optimal into the far ends of the scale. Simply, ‘how to study’ is not something that is brought up on a regular basis. Not to put it solely on teachers, but learning and memory strategies are just not covered in school. There is too much of a focus on ‘what’ and not enough focus on ‘how.’ A series on this would be incredible for students and would help fill that gap and give them a better understanding of how learning and memory works. I’m excited for this!

[@PsychExamReview]

@@IdealistINFP I agree that these skills aren't covered enough in school despite the obvious need for them. I've started a series here on how to study effectively though I haven't had time to make new videos recently. Hopefully I'll have time to add some new videos to this series soon! kzbin.info/aero/PLkKvotUGCyLcTPjkRSKIjrXst-vhR9-Yz

[@solomontruthlover5308]

So what does it mean for someone to have a good short term memory that he can put more things in it? Or that he can take his short term and turn it into long term?

[@PsychExamReview]

Someone with a large working memory capacity can simply put more things in it at once. So this person would find it easier to solve complex problems that involve keeping multiple steps or possibilities in mind at the same time. But we all have the capacity to create "chunks" or make some steps more automatic so we don't have to think about them and this can free up some of our working memory capacity. For example, when first learning to read you had to try to keep all the individual letters in mind in order to figure out a certain word and this probably took nearly all of your working memory. Over time, however, you learned to recognize it as a word automatically and that frees up your working memory so that now you could focus on the meaning of the word in a sentence, or even the meaning of that sentence in the context of a novel, etc. This is something I'm going to address in my series on studying effectively soon, so hopefully I can provide more detail and examples for you there. Thanks for commenting!

[@solomontruthlover5308]

@@PsychExamReview thanks a lot for the explanation

[@Dani-ge1zw]

Do u have a video on the MSM memory model?

[@PsychExamReview]

The first 4 videos of this playlist introduce the Multi-Store Model (or 3-Box model). There is an introduction and then a video for each of the "boxes": sensory memory, short-term (this video), and long-term. Hope this helps! kzbin.info/aero/PLkKvotUGCyLf3Y04uZuR52-1NceR5_JxZ

[@Dani-ge1zw]

PsychExamReview Nice, thanks!

[@AmbientAuteur]

Is there a kinesthetic loop under "central executive" like visual sketchpad and phonological map?" People who are blind and deaf still have working memory.

[@PsychExamReview]

This is a great question. There isn't a separate kinesthetic loop in the model and this information would generally be regarded as in the "spatial" part of the visuo-spatial sketchpad. I think this makes sense if you think of being able to create a mental image of an object by touch but more complex examples of touch information might be harder to categorize. Motor tasks can also be regarded as spatial information, though there's some debate on whether motor memory should be considered an independent type of working memory. I don't have the expertise to have an opinion on these categorizations but it's a great question for thinking about the limitations and necessary simplifications of cognitive models.

[@xsli2876]

Short term memory lasts < 30 seconds. Based on this evidence, if I have to guess, I guess the short term memory is just some kind of brain wave inside hippocampus. (When I throw a rock into a lake, the duration of the wave lasts is about the same as the short term memory duration). When the brain wave is still on, if that memory gets converted into long term memory, then it becomes long term memory; if not, then this piece of short term memory, when the brain wave dies out, is gone for good ---- all these is just my personal opinion.

[@xsli2876]

In the middle of the first brain wave(the first short term memory), if we got interrupted(we have 2nd short term memory happening, i.e. there is 2nd different kind brain wave is happening inside our hippocampus), the first brain wave gets overridden by the 2nd brain wave. The end result is that the 1st brain wave disappeared: this is how interruption destroys our 1st memory -- my personal opinion.

[@PsychExamReview]

This is an interesting analogy, though we should remember that memories are complex and involve activity of many parts of the brain. The hippocampus seems to be responsible for tying all these different parts together into a "memory" that can be retrieved later. Rather than thinking of a single wave of activity perhaps we could use your analogy and think of all the ripples of activity from several areas at once, for which the hippocampus creates a sort of template or fingerprint for that specific pattern of activity. This would be similar to the idea of engrams, though the biological mechanisms for how this occurs aren't well understood.

[@xsli2876]

@@PsychExamReview Yes. I fully agree with your idea. Even though the biological data is not there to fully support this idea, I am curious if we can set up some computer modeling to test this idea. This will be a nice project to do and publish.

[@PsychExamReview]

@@xsli2876 I imagine there are some researchers working on similar approaches, though to be honest I'm not familiar with the most recent research and models.

[@lizziex3565]

i am really struggling to understand this and omg i have my psychology exam in a week and aaaaaaaggggghhhh stress

[@PsychExamReview]

Hopefully this video can help, let me know if you have any questions!

[@lizziex3565]

Thanks it has helped me, i’m just wondering how i would go about answering an application based question where there is a scenario and you have to apply your knowledge of the wmm to it

[@PsychExamReview]

@@lizziex3565 It's difficult to know how to apply it without knowing the specifics of the question but you might need to apply the model by determining which tool of working memory would be used for a particular situation. Or you might need to explain how information is manipulated by working memory in order to successfully solve a problem.

[@lizziex3565]

PsychExamReview ah right okay thanks for your help. sorry to be a pain but is there any chance you would explain it is manipulated ?:)

[@PsychExamReview]

@@lizziex3565 I just meant that an application question might need you to explain that working memory allows someone to manipulate or change information, rather than just storing it. A more detailed question might ask about the tools used to do that manipulation, which would include the visuospatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, and the episodic buffer.

[@runwitscissors00]

what about people like myself who can remember multiple bank card numbers " 16 digits"

[@PsychExamReview]

Using "chunking" allows you to group several numbers as one "item" and this can allow you to hold more information. Mnemonics also allow very large amounts of information to be recalled. These techniques work by linking to existing memories to aid recall but they don't actually change the capacity that can be held in mind at once.

[@runwitscissors00]

@@PsychExamReview hmm i do use noticeable chunking but not in any pattern. I remember it as it comes off the card. 4 digits - 2 digits - 3 digits - 7 digits .. so i dont realllly think it’s chunking . No mnemonics either. I was brought here as part of my psyc 1000 course . Loved the lecture !

[@PsychExamReview]

@@runwitscissors00 Glad you liked it! Just to clarify, chunking doesn't have to be a deliberate pattern and can just refer to any grouping of items to hold more information. So remembering a word you know (as one item) takes much less memory capacity than remembering an equally long string of random letters (where each letter is an item), so this would be considered a kind of chunking too. For digits thinking of 1623 as the numbers 16 & 23 (2 items) would be slightly easier than thinking of each individual digit 1, 6, 2, 3 (4 items).

[@runwitscissors00]

@@PsychExamReview thanks for the great replies !

[@neihakamble7673]

You're a good teacher but your face is such a distraction(too cute) ,can't decide whether to look at ur face or the information on the screen. Anywyz video was really helpful. I wanna do my career in psychology, need ur guidance.

[@PsychExamReview]

Haha, I'm glad you're finding my videos helpful and a benefit of video is you can always watch again if you get distracted :) It's great to hear that you're pursuing work in psychology, let me know if you have any questions!

[@neihakamble7673]

PsychExamReview I have a lot of questions,this isn't the right place to attack with all my questions n confusions... It'll be better if you have any social media acc(insta, fb) So that i can ask anytime n we can discuss properly whenever you're free :)

[@PsychExamReview]

Sure, you can email questions to me at [e-mail] or DM me on Twitter @PsychExamReview

[@neihakamble7673]

Ömer Çoruh ehh? english plz

[@fatihakhan4381]

@Ömer Ç bizim burada tam tersi oluyo nedense bunlar çok rahat. Türkler her yerde :)

[@nanotech_republika]

@10:00 "Now exactly how these two relate to one another is still sort of up for debate". .... wait what?!.... that's why I came here to watch this video and understanding what those memories are and how they relate to each other. What a waste of time! Lot's of philosophical theories for entertaining only, but no science facts. And btw, that paper on 7+/-2 items is really an old paper. Sort of pseudo science from today's perspective.