Im sure you all know your five senses! Sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste. Well Sensory Memory is just that, the first two being the most important: sight and hearing.
Sensory Memory is where information goes when someone first takes it in from the environment, so what you hear and see goes here first. In a way to decide it's importance and if it should be moved to Working Memory.
Role? get information from around you
How Big? Large
Time it Will Last? Short
How Does it get in? Sensation or senses
There are two types of Sensory Memory:
Iconic Memory (Visual): you can think of this type of Sensory Memory like a video camera and it only lasts for .5 seconds
Echoic Memory (Auditory): you can think of this type of Sensory Memory like a tape recorder and it only lasts for 2 seconds.
Sensory Memory is where information goes when someone first takes it in from the environment, so what you hear and see goes here first. In a way to decide it's importance and if it should be moved to Working Memory.
Role? get information from around you
How Big? Large
Time it Will Last? Short
How Does it get in? Sensation or senses
There are two types of Sensory Memory:
Iconic Memory (Visual): you can think of this type of Sensory Memory like a video camera and it only lasts for .5 seconds
Echoic Memory (Auditory): you can think of this type of Sensory Memory like a tape recorder and it only lasts for 2 seconds.
Easy Way to Remember Iconic and Echoic Memory
Cant Count on Sensory Memory
Now as it is important to know about Sensory Memory one can not count on it. Sensory Memory can not be relied on, it doesn't give exact information. The visual information our Sensory Memory grants us with lacks fact, 'detail' or backing. It has been discovered over the years that Iconic Memory can not be used as an image in our minds for future reference (Irvine, 2011).
Selective Attention
![Picture](/uploads/5/3/4/5/53455333/4872903.png?1432593598)
Selective Attention: focusing on only one thing or taking all attention and focusing on the important thing.
Often time because you think one way about something you miss other things, this is selective attention being a bad thing (Schwartzstein, 2014). This kind of selective attention can lead to whats called
Inattentional Blindness: missing certain things because you are focused on the other important things.
Schwartzstein uses a complex model to explain this topic. Here is a simplified example on the topic.
Example of Selective Attention:
There is a young boy names Norice Droop who fancies himself a Detective. His friend, a tom boy of a girl, Gregg Mayne's dog, Ghost goes missing and asks Norice to help her find him! Norice is up for the challenge even though he has never met Ghost. When Norice goes to Gregg's house to get the investigation started he immediately notices a hole dug under the fence and dog prints around in the dirt. So Norice decides to follow this lead because what dog wouldn't try to escape if they dug the hole. Norice missed the open cellar door on the side of the house and the faint sounds of dogs barking. He only focuses on following up behind the fence and what is past it because of the dug hole. Gregg's mom actually ends up finding Ghost in the cellar with another bigger dog trying to play. It turns out Ghost was afraid of the other dog, who actually dug the hole through to their yard so he ran to the cellar. Because Norice focused on one thing in his case he missed the cellar dog being open and even the barking. This shows how selective attention can be a negative thing and cause more errors than not (Schwartzstein, 2014).
Often time because you think one way about something you miss other things, this is selective attention being a bad thing (Schwartzstein, 2014). This kind of selective attention can lead to whats called
Inattentional Blindness: missing certain things because you are focused on the other important things.
Schwartzstein uses a complex model to explain this topic. Here is a simplified example on the topic.
Example of Selective Attention:
There is a young boy names Norice Droop who fancies himself a Detective. His friend, a tom boy of a girl, Gregg Mayne's dog, Ghost goes missing and asks Norice to help her find him! Norice is up for the challenge even though he has never met Ghost. When Norice goes to Gregg's house to get the investigation started he immediately notices a hole dug under the fence and dog prints around in the dirt. So Norice decides to follow this lead because what dog wouldn't try to escape if they dug the hole. Norice missed the open cellar door on the side of the house and the faint sounds of dogs barking. He only focuses on following up behind the fence and what is past it because of the dug hole. Gregg's mom actually ends up finding Ghost in the cellar with another bigger dog trying to play. It turns out Ghost was afraid of the other dog, who actually dug the hole through to their yard so he ran to the cellar. Because Norice focused on one thing in his case he missed the cellar dog being open and even the barking. This shows how selective attention can be a negative thing and cause more errors than not (Schwartzstein, 2014).