What are the different types of memory used for data entry?

[DaveC426913]

I'm doing a lot (a LOT) of data entry right now - patient info.

I can't copy/paste because one program is in a remote window, so copy/paste doesn't transfer.

So I've got to read 10-digit health card numbers and multi-part fee codes from an Excel sheet into the billing app. The more I can remember in one pass, before having to look back, the faster I can enter data.

This is unlike the usual programming I do. For that, I need both "sides" of my conscious brain to tackle coding from a very conscious and aware PoV.

Doing data entry, I'm discovering that I have extra "pockets" of memory that are helping me out.

When reading a 10-digit number, I can get about 6-7 numbers in my "primary" memory, and the last few numbers I am able to retain in my visual memory - i.e. literally, I see the numbers in my head - sometimes only in my peripheral vision (just outside my focus) - and can type them in just by looking at the image in my head.

When reading a sequence of diagnostic and fee codes, I speak them out loud, and they seem to be stored in my auditory memory.

This is kind of cool - realizing I have multiple "flavours" of very short term memory.

No questions, just thought it was cool.

 

[berkeman]

I do similar things, using both audio and visual together.

However, have you considered just using a USB camera with character recognition to do the transfer? If you get any of those numbers wrong, I can imagine that bad things could happen to the patients or their pocketbooks...

Another option would be if they could appear as barcodes in the source document (the numbers, not the patients). You can usually use a barcode scanner to read a display as long as it is clean black bars on a white background. Try this one:

https://www.britannica.com/technology/barcode

 

[Tom.G]

No questions, just thought it was cool.

You are posting in a technical forum, where the regulars here 'answer questions, solve problems' for a living and/or hobby; and you don't expect 'answers/solutions'?

I can't copy/paste because one program is in a remote window, so copy/paste doesn't transfer.

Unless the 'remote window' is implemented in the video stream to the monitor, there is probably a way to get the operating system to copy/paste (may not be worth the effort though).

If you don't want to be distracted with 'ideas', please withhold further details.

Cheers,
Tom

p.s. 'Typical' short term memory is 7±2, mine seems to be 5, oh well.

 

[Pythagorean]

I'd venture what you are calling "primary" memory is either auditory or semantic memory (a list of labels), then with your visual memory you just remember the shape. After you've expelled your current labels from working memory, you can then find and use the labels for the shapes in your visual memory.

I wonder if visual perception doesn't require working memory then and visual identification does. Identification and perception appear to be performed two different processing paths ("two-stream hypothesis") - the two paths aren't as independent as made out by the original authors, but do preserve many distinctions.

A 2007 look at multi-modal capacity:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2621445/

Not surprisingly:

Visual working memory directly alters perception
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0640-4
Visual working memory contaminates perception
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3371032/

 

[Torbert]

Some things are not questioned due to them being universal. When I retell a story it comes out sometimes at complete odds to what is there if I pull up the memory of the page and reread it.
I can catch incorrect memories only if the effort is made. Mostly I pull up instructions or conversations that had gotten muddled during follow through. Believing this trait to be universal led to some interesting conversations while growing.

No questions here either, it is cool that such things are studied while others publish these studies.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

Very cool insight! This reminds me of chunking strategies used in storing short term memory. If the brain has reached a limit in memorizing a piece of data, then it will create another chunk (and we can usually hold only a couple of chunks). In this case, your brain automatically chose to use another style (imagery) after it was overloaded with what is probably your preference (“verbal”) instead of using another similar chunk. The mind can be so creative. But it’s also effective, so what you experienced was a sort of cognitive detour.