Do you have good memory? Understanding information processing theory

By Dawn Marie Sicurelli
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
November, 2010

Today we learned Chinese! What a great introduction to learning about memory.
We learned about the information processing theory. This theory helps us understand how people acquire new information, how they store information and recall it from memory. We learned that the best way to remember things is to associate the new information with information that is already known.

The information processing theory uses different parts of the brain to help us obtain, code remember, store and retrieve. The right side of the brain uses the storage register which briefly holds the information for .05-3seconds. The brain decides then decides what to do with the information. If we pay attention the information goes into the center of the brain. This area uses short term memory which is the most important part of the brain. This holds the information for 20 seconds and with practice the information will go to the right side of the brain which contains long term memory. The long term memory is the permanent storehouse of unlimited capacity. The information within the long term brain is organized as schemata to help with retrieval.

I always thought I had a very good memory but sometimes questioned my memory because as I aged, I found myself forgetting a lot of things. However, during today’s lesson I learned that is not age that is causing my lack of memory. I am so busy that I am not paying attention and this is what is causing me to forget.