5 - STM and Working memory Flashcards
explain the modal model of memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin
- input to sensory memory
- sensory to STM for 15-20 seconds
- STM to output, rehearsel, or LTM
- LTM to STM, ect.
what are the types of memory features in a model called
structural features
what are control processes
dynamic processes associated wth the scutrucal features that can be controlled by the person and may differ from one task to the next
what is an example of a control process
rehearsal, nmeumonics, etc
what is sensory memory
the retention of the effects of sensory stimulation
provide two examples of sensory memory at work
persistence of vision - sparkler making a circle even though its only in one spot
- same thing with movies - persistence of vision fills in the dark moments between images
explain Sperling’s (whole report method) experiment on sensory store capacity
- flashed an array of letters on the screen for 50ms
- asked participants to report as many as they could
- called a whole report method - (try and get as many as you can out of 12)
- avg. of 4.5
- some reported they had seen all the letters, but their perception had faded so fast they could only report some
- needed a new idea
explain Sperling (partial report method) experiment on sensory store capacity
- coming off the whole report method, wanted to see if they could get 100% of the letters on a 4 letter row
- flashed 12 items in 3 4 letter rows-
- then a tone telling them which row to repeat
- correctly got 3.3/4
- so participants could see 80% of the letters, but they faded rapidly
explain Sperling’s (delayed partial report method) experiment on sensory store capacity y
- flashed n and off, cue after a delay
- after one second, only a bit more than 1 letter correct
explain Sperling;s conclusions from his studies on sensory memory
- what are brief sensory memories called?
- sensory memory registers all or most of the data presented to our eyes
- this information decays within a second
- brief sensory memory he called an iconic memory or visual icon // echoic for audio (little longer this way, few seconds)
why can particpants record some letters in sperlings experiments
they moved into STM
what is the duration of STM and how did we figure it out
15-20 seconds
- Peterson and Peterson - presented participants w 3 letters then a number
- asked to begin counting backwards by 3 from the number
- done to prevent rehearsal
- after intervals from 3-18 seconds, asked to repeat the letters
- 80% recall at 3 seconds, 12% at 18, so effective ranged is 15-20
what were the initial ideas about how many items can be stored in STM?
5-9
what are more recent STM measurements telling us about item storage and change detection
- functional limit around 4 items
- Luck and Vogel; change detection with items that had a few items (3) up to several
- perfect performance between 1 and 3 items
- got much worse after 4
- same results with verbal materials
what is chunking?
combining smaller units into larger meaningful units to facilitate recall
- STM for individual unrelated words - 5 - 8
- for meaningful sentences - around 20 words
explain Ericcson’s study on chunking
trained a regular ass kid to increase his 7 STM span up to 79 with chunking training (can use LTM content to ‘meaningify’ STM content
what is the difference between units and information
expliain Alvarez and Cananagh’ study on STM information content
used the change detection paradigm but with more complex objects included
- ability to recognize difference depended on the coomplexity
- 4.4 items for easy coloured shit, but 1.6 if they were 3-d
- more information in an image, less of these items storable in STM
what is working memory
the updated term for STM that takes n the idea that STM is capable of the ‘manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning and reasoning’
- WM does
a) holding informatioon
b) processing information - WORKING
explain Baddeley’s reading text and remembering numbers task
- showed 4 numbers, asked to remember them
- then read a passage
- ppl tend to do well; can’t be explained by the modal model (takes up all of STM with either task)
what did the reading text and remember numbers task show to Baddeley
WM must be dynamic and consistent of several discrete systems that function separately
what are the three main aspects of WM to Baddeley
- Phonological loop
- visuospatial sketch pad
- central executive
what is the phonological loop
- phonological store - limited capacity to hold information for a few secs
- articulatory rehearsal process - rehearsal that can prevent the delay of items in the store; holds verbal and auditory information
what is the visuospatial sketch pad
holds visual and spatial information
what is the central executive
in control of the other aspects of WM
- pulls info from LTM and coordinates the other two sections by focussing on specific parts of a task and dividing attention between different tasks
what are the three phenomena that support the existence of the phonological loop
- phonological similarity effect
- word length effect
- articulatory suppression
what is the phonological similarity effect
confusion of letters or words that sound similar
- occurs even if the words or letters are presented visually
- so these items are being processed by the phonological loop
what is the word length effect
memory for shorter words is better than for longer ones
- Baddeley; people can remember (in STM) the number of items they can say in 1.5-2 seconds
what is articulatory suppression
- what does it do to the word length effect?
- prevent people from rehearsing items - repeat random useless shit
- repetition reduces memory bc speaking interferes with rehearsal
- eliminates the word length effect; shorter words take up less space in the phonological loop
what is the visuospatial sketch pad primarily involved in
the creation fo visual imagery (visual images in the mind) own the absence of visual stimuli
explain shepard and Metzler’s findings on object rotation
- rotate a shape by x degrees, time to figure out if its the same r not
- 1 second per 40degrees
- outcome of mental rotation
explain the findings of Sala 1999 on chunking in terms visuospatial sketch pad
presented with a pattern of black and white rectangles on a page - no ability to verbally describe so its all visual
- good for patterns of up to 9 squares, after that less accurate
- high number bc of chunking
-
is the visuospatial sketch pad susceptible to interferon /explain
yes, Broks (1968)
- trace a shape in your mind, point or say (out or in) depending on if its an internal or expternal angle
- pointing is harder than saying
- holding the image of the letter and pointing both engage the sketch pad, increases task complexity and decreases performance
how did Baddeley explain the central executive?
attention controller
what its he central executive related to?
executive attention as described in chat 4
how have we studied the central executive ?
study of patients with brain damage - frontal lobe dmg - typical problem is preservation ; repeatedly performing the same action even if it doesn’t work
what is the episodic buffer
introduced to explain things the original theory couldn’t, like why words in sentence are easy to remember
- episodic buffer mediates chunking by connecting to the LTM and providing extra capacity
how have we used animal research to uncover the relevance of the pFC for WM
delayed-response task in monkeys with normal or pFC losses brains
- show where food is, lower screen, cover food, have the monkey choose where it is
- good until pFC is removed, then perform at chance levels
- one of the reasons kids have no object permanence - under developed pfc which is necessary for storing info
Explain Funahashi’s findings on neurons in the PFC
recorded neurons during delayedresponse tasks
- see a square (neuron fires) , then it goes away, the (neuron keeps responding)
- x in the centre then turns off, so the monkey moves it eye back
- evidence they were remembering the location
explain Stokes’ conceptions about how information can be stored by mechanisms other than neural firing
- what does he call this?
can be stored by short term changes n a neural network
- activity state; information causes a number of neutrons to briefly fire
- firing doesn’t continue
- causes the synaptic state to change (weighting)
- calls these changes activity-silent working memory
memory retrieval is indicated by the pattern of firing in the network
- only lasts for a few seconds (WM time!)
why is WM an example of distributed processing
requires more than just the PFC to get of the ground
is more working memory better
yes, higher Sat scores, graduate from college, better attentional control and dealing w temptation, creativity, motional control
explain Vogel’s findings on WM and the central executive - High vs low Wm cap
high capacity vs low capacity based on WM cap
- then tested using change detection
- recorded the ERP during the task
- represents how much WM space was used during the task
- no difference between the two groups unless you add distractors
- they distracted high WM more than Low
- better at tuning out distractors, rather than tuning in to the relevant information
explain the connection between WM and cognitive control
cog control is the set of functions outputting the ability to regulate behaviour and attentional resources
- closely linked w working memory
