4. Working Memory

Question 1

Digit span

Answer 1

Component of many IQ tests
Measure of verbal STM

Backwards digit recall is a measure of working memory (may only be suitable in children)

Question 2

Sentence span

Answer 2

Remembering the last word of a series of short sentences

Question 3

Counting span

Answer 3

Count the number of coloured shapes… Then recall the number over consecutive tasks

Question 4

WM Span

Answer 4

Typically 3-5 items

Question 5

Working memory may predict…

Answer 5

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)

Question 6

Working memory is intact and impaired in…

Answer 6

Intact in amnesia

Impaired in: ADHD, ASD, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, DCD, dysexecutive syndrome, dyslexia, depression

DECLINES IN HEALTHY AGEING

Question 7

Bad delay and hitch working memory model

Answer 7

Proposed WM iS for active storage and processing

Crucial in a range of tasks

Visuospatial sketchpad –> central executive –> phonological loop

Question 8

Baddely and hitch revised multicomponent model

Answer 8

Compromised the same as above but added…
Central executive
Episodic buffer

And links to LTM

Question 9

Phonological store

Answer 9

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

Question 10

WM as a language learning device

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Visual cache

Answer 11

Passive store of form and colour

VISUAL SPAN= Visual pattern task

Question 12

Inner scribe

Answer 12

Active spatial rehearsal process

SPATIAL SPAN= Corsi task

Question 13

Visual spatial working memory

Answer 13

Temporary storage and manipulation of visual patterns and spatial movement

Experiment: route through a city is impaired by spatial tapping task

Question 14

VS WM and attention

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Central executive

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Dysexecutive syndrome

Answer 16

Patient with a pole through his head!

Poor planning, reduced inhibitions and risky behaviours as a result of impaired executive function

Question 17

Central executive functions…

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Episodic buffer

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Episodic buffer capacity

Answer 19

Approx 4 chunks

Question 20

Criticism of WMM

Answer 20

It’s oversimplified as it does not take into account taste and smell memory etc

Question 21

Working memory

Answer 21

Temporary storage system that underpins ability for complex thought

Ability to keep track of ongoing mental thought processes