Watch and learn! Carefully selected media links will help bring key concepts and theories to life, preparing you for your studies and exams. 

Click on the following links which will open in a new window.

Video Links

• Sensory memory
  This clip introduces the Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model and covers sensory memory, including an overview of the Sperling experiment and a nice demonstration of how iconic memory can create the illusion of movement.

• Short Term Memory Test - Remembering Numbers
  A digit span test performed with a varied group of volunteers, and the ability to “play along” as a viewer.

• Clive Wearing - The Man with No Short Term Memory
  An edited version of a BBC documentary on an extreme case of amnesia.

Audio Links

• Multitasking Multistressful for Working Moms.
  A sociological study suggests that working mothers are more stressed out by multitasking than men are. The implications for working memory are discussed in this Morning Edition piece.

• To Keep Your Brain Nimble as You Age, Stretch It
  All Things Considered covers the importance of exercising your mind, including sensory and working memory, to prevent dementia.

• A New Stage Play Tackles Athletes and Head Injuries
  A Talk of the Nation piece that looks at the later effects of concussions suffered by some athletes. Their head injuries in youth can affect working memory in later years, as dramatized in the play “Headstrong.”

Web Resources

• Short Term Memory Test
  A fun demonstration of the capacity of short term memory.
  Follow-up exercise: Ask students to develop ways to improve their short-term memory score.

• Visual memory game
  A clever “concentration” memory game with visual stimuli. The twist is, the stimuli are pictures of the brains of various animals. A useful visual task if you’re looking for something to demonstrate the visuo-spatial sketch pad.
  Follow-up exercise: What strategies are you using to recall the locations of the brains? How well do you think you would do if the brains were not labeled?

• The short term memory checker
  This memory game shows you pictures of items and asks you to recognize them in a large array of pictures. It starts with 2, then goes up to 4 items, etc. Can you advance to level 10? 1 miss makes you start over.
  Follow-up exercise: What strategies are you using to recall the pictures? There are no verbal labels presented here, but are you using them anyway? Do they lead sometimes lead to errors?

• The Brown-Peterson Task
  Students can set a number of parameters and run a variation of the Brown-Peterson task, in this online experiment from John H. Krantz of Hanover College.