Some short memories Die Suddenly instead of Fading Away

This experiment was conducted by researchers of the UC Davis Center for mind and brain. What researchers Weiwei Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar, and Steve Luck, a professor of psychology, were trying to prove was that short memories dies suddenly and did not fade away as scientists have thought for decades. Their experiment consisted of two tests, each given to 12 adults. On the first one, 3 different colored squares flashed in the computer. Then a color wheel appeared and the three squares also appeared but this time they were colorless and one was highlighted. Afterwards, the subject was asked to recall the color of the highlighted square and was asked to click on the area of the wheel that matched the color. They repeated this 150 times. The results were that the people that did remember the color clicked very close to the color in the wheel and for the ones that the color had disappeared from their memory, clicked on a random color. This means that memory does not fade away instead it goes away suddenly. The second test was similar but it used shapes instead of colors. Luck said, “[They] either had the memory or didn’t have the memory. The memories did not gradually fade away”. This information helps us understand about memory retention and formation. And it is basic for everyday life because it provides a mechanism to help us avoid the confusion while trying to make decisions based on weak memories. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090429091806.htm