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What are the concepts of working memory, STM, & LTM

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This solution examines the concepts of working memory, short term memory, and long term memory. It also lists and describes what working memory is composed of, and it makes distinctions between short term memory and long term memory. How STM is transfered to LTM is mentioned, and how this can be prevented is explained.

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This solution explains what working memory, short term memory (STM), and long term memory (LTM) are. It makes distinctions between STM and LTM, and it lists the components of working memory.

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Working memory "was devised as an advancement and elaboration of the earlier theory of short-term memory" (Terry, 2009, p. 240). Working memory explains how "we plan, elaborate, compute, and imagine in short-term memory" (Terry, 2009, p. 240).

"Short-term memory (STM) refers to memory that is limited in both its duration and its capacity" (Terry, 2009, p. 224). It can retain a list of approximately seven items plus or minus two for several seconds to less than a minute when the items are not rehearsed. Active control processes, including "where to direct attention, how to code new inputs, when to rehearse, and which retrieval cues to use" are all involved in STM (Terry, 2009, p. 226). Thus, STM is an active rather than a passive store of memory.

Long-term memory, in contrast to STM then, is memory that is usually more than a few minutes old. It is transferred from STM to LTM via rehearsal, and most theorist's believe that if you interfere ...

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