Case Description: It was a chilly evening and I was very nervous because I was waiting for my exams results later that evening. I decided to take a walk down the streets to ease my mind. There was a peaceful demonstration and hence there were many people walking in groups. I was listening to music through my earphones while I was still browsing using my phone. Therefore, I did not pay much attention to people or activities around me. Suddenly, a man grabbed my phone and started to run. I tried to follow him but he dodged me and disappeared into the crowd. I decided to report the incidence to the police but I did not get much assistance because I was asked to describe the man but I could not give much information even though I had brief memory of the incident.
Psychological Application: I had a rough picture of how the man looked like and what he was wearing but I was not very sure. According to psychologists, this is how the visual memory always works. In the visual sensory system, memory always lasts for a fraction of a second and that is why I was not able to give much information about the incident irrespective of the fact that I had to “double take” and see what my brain had processed. According to psychologists, the capacity of the iconic memory always contains everything that can be seen at that specific time. But in my situation, the whole incident happened very fast and hence some iconic information had faded by the time I was reporting the case. According to research, new information always replaces old information in a quarter of the second in the iconic memory through a process called masking. It was through selective selection that I was able to provide a brief description of the man. Selective selection involves the ability of concentrating on only one stimulus among various sensory inputs. However, much information did not reach my short-term memory which is the next process of memory after sensory memory and information here may be stored for up to 30 seconds. In fact, it is through selective selection that information always enters the short-term memory. However, in my situation, less information reached the short-term memory and that is why it was difficult to describe the whole situation.
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