The development of the first computers in the 1960s had important influences on psychology. As computers became more advanced and began to "think" in more complex ways, psychologists began to make a comparison between the workings of computers and the workings of the human brain. Many of these comparisons have turned out to be wrong; the human brain is quite different from a computer. But the comparison between human memory and computer memory has stood up to rigorous testing.
A computer has two forms of memory. Its hard drive stores all the information in the computer over long periods of time. Its RAM (Random Access Memory) stores the files that the computer is actually using at that time. Once the computer stops using a file, it is “forgotten” by its RAM memory and returned to the hard drive. The human brain works in a similar way. Psychologists call our “hard drive” long-term memory, and our“RAM” working memory.
Working memory serves a number of functions. This is where new information is stored before it is processed into long-term memory. Working memory also allows us to call up information from our long-term memory when we need to use it. For example, a persons address is stored in his or her long-term memory, but it is called up to working memory when that person fills out an envelope at the post office. Working memory also allows us to integrate old information with new information. If a person studied sociology several years ago, all that information would be in long-term memory. If that same person takes a new sociology class, some of that old information will be called up to working memory, so connections can be made between the new and the old information.
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