Chapter #4 / Session #4 Flashcards
What is working memory?
The memory system supporting one’s ability to store information while simultaneously processing other incoming information
Are short-term memory the same or different cognitive processes? Short-term memory and working memory refer to the same cognitive process.
Short-term memory and working memory refer to the same cognitive process.The term “working memory” represents an updated view of the more traditional “short-term memory.”
Research confirms that your memory is limited in both its ___ and its ___ when you must remember new information.
duration // capacity
Your memory is limited, even when the delay is less than ___.
1 minute
What is Short-term memory?
Short-term memory refers to the memory system that is responsible for holding onto a small amount of information that has been recently taken in from the environment.
What method provided much of the original information about short-term memory?
the Brown/Peterson & Peterson technique
Material held in memory for less than ___ is frequently forgotten.
one minute
What is Serial-Position Effect?
The term serial-position effect refers to the U-shaped relationship between a word’s position in a list and its probability of accurate recall.
When researchers use the serial–position curve method, the size of short-term memory is estimated to be about ___ items.
3-7
In a Serial-Position curve, when do participants have better recall?
At the beginning and end
What are Semantics?
The meaning of words and sentences.
What is Proactive interference (PI)?
Proactive interference (PI) means that people have trouble learning new material because previously learned material keeps interfering with their new learning.
The number of items stored in short-term memory depends on ___.
both chunking strategies and word meaning
What is the Atkinson–Shiffrin model/information-processing model?
The Atkinson–Shiffrin model proposed that memory involves a sequence of separate steps. In each step, information is transferred from one storage area to another.
What is Sensory memory?
According to the model, external stimuli from the environment first enter sensory memory. Sensory memory is a storage system that records information from each of the senses with reasonable accuracy.
According to the Atkinson–Shiffrin model/information-processing model, how long does information last in the sensory memory for?
For 2 seconds or less, and then most of it is forgotten.
According to the Atkinson–Shiffrin model/information-processing model, how long does information last in the short-term memory for?
Atkinson and Shiffrin noted that information in short-term memory can be lost within about 30 seconds, unless it is somehow repeated (through rehearsal, for example).
How do cognitive psychologists now view the Atkinson–Shiffrin model/information-processing model?
They now consider it to not be accurate, and most cognitive psychologists now consider sensory memory to be the very brief storage process that is part of perception, rather than an actual memory.
What did Baddeley and Hitch determine to be the goal of short-term memory for our cognitive processes?
its major function is to hold several interrelated bits of information in our mind, all at the same time, so that a person can work with this information and then use it appropriately
What is Working Memory?
Working memory is the brief, immediate memory for the limited amount of material that you are currently processing; part of working memory also actively coordinates your ongoing mental activities.
-In other words, working memory lets you keep a handful of items active and accessible, so that you can use them for a wide variety of cognitive tasks, and so that they can be integrated with additional incoming information.
Working memory is an ___.
active process
Working memory is a more popular reconceptualization of short-term memory that places an emphasis on ___ and ___.
simultaneous processing // storage of information
Information typically lasts in working memory for no more than ___.
30 seconds
Most memory theorists believe that working memory seems to have ___, which can operate ___ of each other
several components // somewhat independently
What is the Phonological Loop?
The phonological loop can process a limited number of sounds for a short period of time.
The phonological loop processes language and other sounds that you hear, as well as the sounds that you make. It is also active during subvocalization, for example, when you silently pronounce the words that you are reading.
Phonological-loop tasks activate part of the ___ and part of the ___ in the ___ hemisphere of the brain
frontal lobe // temporal lobe // left
Compared to the right hemisphere of the brain, the left hemisphere is more likely to process information related to ___.
language
The ___ lobe is engaged while processing long but simple sentences.
left parietal
