4. Working Memory Flashcards
Digit span
Component of many IQ tests
Measure of verbal STM
Backwards digit recall is a measure of working memory (may only be suitable in children)
Sentence span
Remembering the last word of a series of short sentences
Counting span
Count the number of coloured shapes… Then recall the number over consecutive tasks
WM Span
Typically 3-5 items
Working memory may predict…
Reading and writing ability Ability to follow complex instructions Taking notes Fluid intelligence Mathematical ability Ability to deal with life stress Academic attainment Tendency for mind wandering (increased working memory leads to increased wandering for easy tasks but decayed wandering for challenging task)
Working memory is intact and impaired in…
Intact in amnesia
Impaired in: ADHD, ASD, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, DCD, dysexecutive syndrome, dyslexia, depression
DECLINES IN HEALTHY AGEING
Bad delay and hitch working memory model
Proposed WM iS for active storage and processing
Crucial in a range of tasks
Visuospatial sketchpad –> central executive –> phonological loop
Baddely and hitch revised multicomponent model
Compromised the same as above but added…
Central executive
Episodic buffer
And links to LTM
Phonological store
Temporary record of auditory - verbal information
2s capacity after which decay is experienced.
Speech perception and production via passive storage and active rehearsal
EVIDENCE
word length effect: improved recall with short simple words
Phonological similarity effect: similar sounding words (acoustic similarity) leads to reduced recall
LTM influences STM… lexical knowledge means words are recalled better than non words
STM influences LTM too… WM is involved in learning a new language
WM as a language learning device
Baddely
Patient (Italian) with damaged WM could recall Italian-Italian word pairs but not Italian-Russian worked pairs
Children’s ability to pronounce longer non words predicts language and vocab levels
Visual cache
Passive store of form and colour
VISUAL SPAN= Visual pattern task
Inner scribe
Active spatial rehearsal process
SPATIAL SPAN= Corsi task
Visual spatial working memory
Temporary storage and manipulation of visual patterns and spatial movement
Experiment: route through a city is impaired by spatial tapping task
VS WM and attention
Change blindness- we cannot see thing change if we are not actively paying attention to the change itself
VS WM is short lived, has a limited capacity and not detailed
-especially not for items that are within focus of attention
Content of VS WM depends on attention
Primacy and recency effects- attention all grab of first item and automatic effect of most recent environmental input
Central executive
Argued it is the centre of consciousness…?
Attention all controller and allocation of resources
Planning and cognitive control
Particularly important for novel situations and non automatised skills
Executive function develops through childhood and declines with healthy ageing
FRONTAL LOBE
Dysexecutive syndrome
Patient with a pole through his head!
Poor planning, reduced inhibitions and risky behaviours as a result of impaired executive function
Central executive functions…
Inhibition- eg stroop effect, we have to suppress one piece of information to speak the other
Shifting: shifting tasks is plus one minus one etc
Updating : rapid addition or deletion of WM info depending on what is relevant and needed
Episodic buffer
Binding of information between sub systems and with LTM
Creation of new concepts based on existing knowledge
Initially thought to be reliant on central executive.. Now think otherwise
CROSS MODAL BINDING TASKS (I.e. A sound with a strange shape, have to match them up) –> predicts children’s reading ability even after controlling for IQ
Episodic buffer capacity
Approx 4 chunks
Criticism of WMM
It’s oversimplified as it does not take into account taste and smell memory etc
Working memory
Temporary storage system that underpins ability for complex thought
Ability to keep track of ongoing mental thought processes
