What’s the deal with short-term memory?

• Short-term memory can hold seven (plus or minus two) chunks of information.

• The information in the short-term memory will be lost in about twenty a thirty seconds, unless it is processed further. Short-term memory has a finite capacity.

• Illegal drugs, alcohol and various medications can badly affect the memory.

• Short-term memory is from the prefrontal lobe. When pictures are being taken of someone's brain, the prefrontal lobe lights the most because we are trying to concentrate on what’s happening at that moment.

• Short term memory is a change in response to a stimulus as a result of experience.

http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_07/i_07_cr/i_07_cr_tra/i_07_cr_tra.html

http://www.dur.ac.uk/robert.kentridge/bpp2mem1.html

http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_cr/d_07_cr_tra/d_07_cr_tra.html

Cites!

Methodology How does a time constraint affect a persons short term

memory?

• How does a time constraint affect a persons short term memory? • Gather 10- 20 people. You must have access to a quiet room, a timer, and five strips of papers with

7 different letters on each of them. Once all of this is attained, you may start your test. Have one of your test subjects in the room at a time.

• Explain to the person the rules– They will be given a paper with different letters on them and need to memorize the letters within the time

limit given– They are not allowed to speak – They are not allowed to give the paper back till the time is up– They are only to repeat the letters when the paper is back in your hand

and begin. • Start the stop watch once you hand them the strip of paper. Give them 10 seconds for the first

strip, 7 for the second, 5 for the third, 3 for the fourth, and 2 for the fifth. • Write down if they skip any letters, get any letters wrong, or get the order of the letters wrong. • Do this process for each test person. This should give you an accurate amount of information to

see how a time constraint affects a persons short term memory.

Time Limit (sec) Percent Wrong

10 12.5

7 50

5 25

3 0

2 0

Observations

• People who seemed less concerned about the time limits tended to get more wrong.

• Having an extremely small time limit tends to get people more hyper and enthusiastic about learning the sequence quicker and better.

• The first transitions of time limits (10 seconds to 7 seconds) was harder for people then they expected.

• The letters that rhymed with each other were easier for people to memorize.

• Some people danced. • Some people sang. • Each person fidgeted and prepared themselves for the 3 second

and 2 second slip of paper as if they were about to play an intense sport.

Conclusion

Based on my results, I cannot see a direct linking between a persons memory and the amount of time they have to memorize a set of data.