The stages of memory process

As believed by most learning theorists there are two stages of memory

1. Short term memory
2. Long term memory

The existence of such stages was first presented by William James (1919).

Short term memory differs from long term memory in three ways.

1. Items initially stored in the STM are profile and easily forgotten.
2. Relatively few items (about 7 chunks) can be stored in the STM.
3. The coding format of items stored in the STM is predominantly acoustic or articulatory in nature.

Immediate memory is retained in the STM. The STM can be converted to LTM but the process takes time and rehearsal. Memory is the key aspect in learning and heavily overlaps with emotion,motivation,learning and perception.

Memory has two aspects

One is the positive aspect of memory that is called as retention or remembering. The other is the negative aspect of memory also called as forgetting.

Implication of memory process.

Memory process is severely disrupted by head injury or any other similar process. These disturbances are of two types.

1. Retrograde amnesia – An individual forgets events, immediately before the time of his head injury, but remembers more remote events.
2. Anterograde or Post traumatic amnesia – An individual is temporarily unable to convert short term memories into long term memories.

Both STM and LTM involve physical processes. However, in STM, the physical processes that take place are temporary and represent an on going process, whereas in LTM permanent changes occur.

The events that are stored in the STM can be disrupted by diffuse brain damage, but events that are stored in the LTM are more durable.