Basic principles of memory Flashcards
More items stored in short-term memory is linked to what?
Greater fluid intelligence
What is fluid intelligence?
Ability to reason, consider + think flexibly.
Assists in resolving new problems.
What is crystallised intelligence?
Accumulation of knowledge, facts + skills.
Assists in using previously acquired knowledge to solve problems more rapidly.
Also known as ‘wisdom’
What are the steps of memory processes?
Encoding (Need attention + perception)
Storage (Mental representation)
Retrieval (Behaviour)
Atkinson + Shiffrin proposed what model of memory?
Multi-modal memory
What is multi-modal memory?
Suggests there are three unitary + separate memory stores.
Information is transferred between them linearly.
Sensory memory, short-term memory (working) and long-term memory.
What are the two types of attention?
Sustained
Selective
What is sustained attention?
The ability of focus on the stimulus over a period of time.
What is selective attention?
The ability to focus on the stimulus, ignoring the rest of sensory input.
‘Cocktail party effect’
What is salience?
Filtering out + focussing on the important information.
What is sensory memory?
Creating a representation in our minds of a stimulus after it has disappeared, for a few milliseconds.
If important (salience), it gets stored.
What are the stores for sensory memory?
Visual - Iconic - milliseconds
Auditory - Echoic - longer
Touch - Tactile - quite a bit longer
In sensory memory, salience is needed for information to be stored. What happens if there is a delay in salience?
If delay is >1sec, recall drops to <50%.
Working memory has a capacity of what?
7 (+/- 2)
In the working memory model, what does phonological loop refer to?
Sounds + words.
Subdivided into phonological store (holds words we hear)+ articulatory process/loop (allows us to repeat words in a loop/add meaning).
Acts as a ‘tape recorder’.
In the working memory model, what does the central executive do?
Drives the whole system + allocates data to phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.
In the working memory model, what is the episodic buffer?
Able to reach into phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad to bring them together. Also keeps them working effectively.
What is the visuospatial sketchpad and where is it located??
Ability to temporarily hold visual and spatial information.
‘Mind’s eye’.
Across parietal and occipital lobes.
What is correlated with learning outcomes in literacy + numeracy, especially reading comprehension?
Working memory capacity
What has been shown as a better predictor of academic success than IQ?
A child’s working memory at 5 years old.
‘Memory problems aren’t always memory problems’. What is meant by this?
Problems encoding (Getting information in).
Problems with storage (Keeping information in).
Problems with retrieval (Getting information out).
