6- Short-Term Memory Flashcards
How do we hold information in short-term memory?
In consciousness
How are we processing information in short-term memory?
Consciously
What type of store is short-term memory?
Temporary store of active info
What capacity does short-term memory have?
Limited
What were the 3 control processes Atkinson and Shiffrin found in STM?
Rehearsal, decay and displacement
What are the 2 types of rehearsal according to Atkinson and Shiffrin?
Maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal
What is maintenance rehearsal?
Repetition to keep information
What is elaborative rehearsal?
Encoding information to send it to LTM
What is decay?
Information is lost because of a time-based limitation
What is displacement?
Information is lost because of a capacity-based limitation
How did Miller show that STM is limited?
Suggested that capacity is 7 +/- 2
What did Cowan suggest STM capacity limited to?
About 4 items
What is chunking?
Grouping items
What is the purpose of chunking?
Increases STM capacity
What 2 effects are involved in the serial position curve?
The primacy effect and the recency effect
What is the primacy effect?
We recall items from the beginning of a list
What does the primacy effect reflect?
LTM
What is the recency effect?
We recall items from the end of a list
What does the recency effect reflect?
STM
How does info from the recency effect decay?
By following distractive tasks
What is the negative recency effect?
Recalling items from the beginning of a list in multi-list tasks
How was STM shown to be separate from LTM in patients with amnesia?
Deficient LTM but intact STM OR deficient STM but intact LTM
What surgery did Scoville and Milner’s epilepsy patients have?
Removal of their bilateral medial lobes including 2/3 of hippocampus and amygdala
How were Scoville and Milner’s epilepsy patients shown to have had their memory affected?
They had a deficient LTM but intact STM
