The ultra-short-term memory
The memory at the beginning of the ternary (three-part) memory model is ultra-short-term memory (UTM), also known as sensory memory . This is because the information received through the senses is stored for only a very short period of 0.5–2 seconds, during which time it is reviewed and filtered for its importance. The Swedish professor J.A. Segner studied this memory storage more than 250 years ago and determined its storage time using a simple experiment. He rotated a luminous object at increasing speed and observed when a person perceived not just a single, moving luminous point, but a luminous circular structure. From the speed of the circling luminous object at this precise moment of transition, he then determined the storage time. The underlying idea is simple: the brain can only perceive the luminous point of the luminous object as a circle if it remembers long enough where the luminous point had previously been. This memory duration was between 0.1 and 0.5 seconds, depending on the brightness of the luminous element.
But is this really a study of ultrashort-term memory? Of course, information is stored for a brief moment in the cells of all our sensory organs, including our eyes (on the retina). But so-called ultrashort-term memory is actually located in the brain. Furthermore, the storage time depends on the so-called sensory modality. Acoustic information is usually stored "sensorially" for longer, up to two seconds (some say, "it still resonates in your ear").
Incidentally, you can clearly see your ultra-short-term memory in everyday life when you are walking or running quickly. If you close your eyes, you feel quite safe for 0.5 - 2 seconds, until you are suddenly overcome by fear and simply have to open your eyes because you have completely lost your orientation. After this short time, the representation of the surrounding situation stored in the UCM has disappeared. Although the UCM can store enormous amounts of data, such as the millions of pieces of information necessary for orientation in a place in the present, after such a short storage of information in the UCM (fortunately) all the useless information is lost again. Only a very small, but in some way "significant" fraction makes the leap to the next memory - the short-term memory .
The short-term memory
Short-term memory is a particularly important part of our overall memory system. Stored information is only absorbed and processed in short-term memory for a short period of time before being erased or successfully transferring to long-term memory. However, the common belief that events remembered for only a few hours or days are stored only in short-term memory and not in long-term memory is incorrect. According to most scientists, the storage duration of short-term memory is only between 20 seconds and approximately 20 minutes (maximum 1 hour)! This relatively long period results from the varying results of various scientific experiments. The important conclusion for us is that any information we have stored for a period of more than 1 hour is already in long-term memory!
But short-term memory has another important and, unfortunately, very inconvenient property: It has an incredibly limited capacity . You can experience firsthand how astonishingly tiny this storage capacity is by trying the following little experiment.
Determining your own memory span:
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Cover the number sequences above with a sheet of paper. There are 6 number sequences in total, with the first sequence consisting of 4 individual digits and the last sequence consisting of 9 digits. Your task is now, starting with the first sequence, to learn each sequence absolutely accurately and then write it down. However, there is something to keep in mind: You have to read each digit aloud at intervals of 1-2 seconds and only look at it once. Now try it with the first sequence and then write down the four digits straight away. Now you can check if you got it right. Probably, right? Now read the next – now five-digit – sequence aloud slowly (again at intervals of 1-2 seconds) and write down the learned number again (the previous 4-digit number is no longer important and can be forgotten). That went well, right? Now try it in the same way with the other number sequences.
Isn't it truly fascinating how easy it is to memorize 4 or 5 digits? Then, suddenly, it becomes quite difficult with 6 digits. And with 7 or even 8 digits, the task becomes extremely challenging, and with 9, it's almost impossible to remember all of them. Incidentally, this test was developed more than 100 years ago by a Mr. Jacobs, a teacher from London. As early as 1887, he used it to determine the learning ability of his schoolchildren.
Indeed, a high correlation was later found between this short-term memory capacity and children's learning ability (and, incidentally, their IQ). It's interesting to note that memory spans increase progressively throughout childhood. A 4-year-old child might sometimes have difficulty remembering a 3-digit number in this text, whereas almost every 6-year-old child has no problem remembering a 4-digit number, has trouble with a 5-digit number sequence, and almost never manages a 6-digit number.
What you've just learned from this short test is your personal short-term memory capacity. As a rule, people have a capacity of 6 to 7 digits or other information units, since it's essentially irrelevant for determining the short-term memory capacity whether you do this test with numbers, letters, words, changes in direction, tonal sequences, or colors. The limited extent of our short-term memory also determines the difficulty level of solving mental exercises. This is easier to understand when you hear the second term often used for short-term memory: working memory. It's analogous to a computer's RAM. Now try the following simple logic test, which places only a minimal demand on your working memory:
Melanie is more beautiful than Betty. Who is less beautiful?
Well, I think that was easily solvable, but what about the following task (can you solve it just by reading it through once?):
Ferdinand is shorter than Michael. Rudy is taller than Harald. Ferdinand is taller than Rudy. Who is the tallest?
Don't be frustrated; inexperienced people are usually unable to solve this mental puzzle. Our brain's normal working memory is simply not large enough to absorb all the relevant information and retain and compare the comparative relationships (e.g., "Michael is taller than Rudy"). But I'll tell you how to "coax" your short-term memory out of its shell and (seemingly) drastically increase it next time. Incidentally, everyone has probably experienced another disadvantageous characteristic of short-term memory in everyday life: its "vulnerability" with regard to recorded and temporarily stored information. A friend gives you a phone number, but—as so often happens—you don't have anything to write it down. So you try to remember it right away by quickly repeating it once or twice. But now the conversation quickly continues, perhaps with other numbers being mentioned. When you then want to recall the phone number from memory after the conversation to write it down, it's often no longer there. It simply did not make the “leap” into long-term memory, was repressed from short-term memory and has thus irrevocably disappeared from our memory.
Long-term memory
There are two possibilities for the information stored in short-term memory. Either it gradually fades away, or it makes the transition to long-term memory. This probably best-known memory storage has three essential properties.
1. Unlimited storage period
The persistence of stored information is presumably unlimited. Many brain researchers believe that, in principle, nothing can be forgotten once it has been stored in long-term memory. "Really? - But I've forgotten quite a few things from my school days," is probably what goes through your head. The reasoning is simple: the "knowledge" is essentially still there, but unfortunately, you can no longer find it. An analogy helps to understand this immediately: If the librarian incorrectly sorts a book in a library filled with millions of books, he will hardly ever be able to find it again. He would most likely still know that it was there at some point, but would now have to accuse himself of making a classification error or suspect it had been stolen. However, if he had concentrated while sorting and placed the book in the right place, he could have found it again without any problem.
2. Unlimited capacity
Even though the exact nature of human memory storage hasn't even been scientifically elucidated in its fundamentals, researchers are almost unanimous on one point: the storage capacity of our long-term memory is unlimited! This is another crucial difference from a computer hard drive, which fills up sooner or later; so, especially with bit-pompous programs, you have to think about whether you really need them and really want to save them on your computer. When learning, however, you don't have to worry about this – no matter how much you learn to maybe "win a million" on one of those science shows. Our long-term memory will never be full (in fact, learning becomes easier the more you learn). This seemingly infinite storage capacity is given to us by nature, but we must learn to harness these almost limitless possibilities through the right strategies – and also targeted training.
But how trainable are our gray matter cells actually? As has been propagated time and again by many, the brain can be compared to a muscle, at least in some aspects. - For example, mental training can increase the performance of the brain in the same way as a muscle, although (just as with muscle training) only in a task-specific manner. - Furthermore, some experiments show that higher performance in a cognitive area can be associated with more efficient, energy-saving work of corresponding brain areas (just as the muscles of elite athletes also function very effectively). - Furthermore, there is evidence of certain structural changes (stronger connectivity and expanded brain areas) in the brain in particularly stressed regions as a result of intensive mental stress over a longer period of time (such an effect can also be observed in a trained muscle). Furthermore, examinations of my brain using magnetic resonance imaging and MEEG at the University of Tübingen, University College London, the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg and the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich have clearly shown, among other things, that learning processes in my brain also make extensive use of completely different areas of the brain that are not or hardly active during “run-of-the-mill” learning.
3. Short retrieval time
Hardly anyone considers how fantastic it is to be able to answer a question like, "Do you know the 1950 soccer world champion?" with a prompt "yes" or "no." We have incredibly efficient mechanisms for making this decision with great certainty in fractions of a second, and this despite the incredibly large amount of data stored in each of our long-term memories. Some people might object that sometimes we have trouble retrieving stored information, particularly with the "it's on the tip of my tongue" phenomenon. Nevertheless, it's interesting that we know with absolute certainty that we know. So, in this case, too, a memory trace exists, we just can't access it at the moment.
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