Chapter 5: Short-Term and Working Memory

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

The processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original info is no longer present.

Question 2

What is the Modal Model of Memory?

Answer 2

Proposed by Richard Atkins and Rich Shiffrin (1968), it was based in implicit memory and broke it into three types: sensory, short-term, long-term.
The most popular theory of its time.

Question 3

Sensory memory (Modal Model of Memory)

Answer 3

Initial stage holds all incoming info for seconds or fractions of a second

Question 4

Short-term memory (Modal Model of Memory)

Answer 4

Holds 5-7 items for roughly 15-20 seconds
AKA: Active memory

Question 5

Long-term memory (Modal Model of Memory)

Answer 5

Can hold info for decades

Question 6

How does information get stored in the Modal Model of Memory?

Answer 6

Input->Sensory->Short-Term->(Rehearsal)->Long-Term->Short-Term->Output
*All about retrieval/rehearsal

Question 7

What is a control process?

Answer 7

Active processes that can be controlled by the person, like rehearsal, making a stimulus more memorable, and strategies of focusing attention on a specific stimulus.

Question 8

What is sensory memory?

Answer 8

Retention for brief periods of time of the effects of sensory stimulation. Info decays very quickly

Question 9

What did Sperling’s (1960) report on the capacity and duration of sensory memory say about sensory memory?

Answer 9

Sensory memory was very brief

Question 10

What is iconic memory?

Answer 10

Brief sensory memory of the things we see; responsible for the persistence of vision

Question 11

What is echoic memory?

Answer 11

Brief sensory memory of the things we hear; responsible for the persistence of sound

Question 12

What is memory decay?

Answer 12

The vanishing of memory trace due to the passage of time and exposure to competing stimuli

Question 13

What is digit span?

Answer 13

How many digits a person can remember, typically 5-8 items

Question 14

What is chunking?

Answer 14

Combining small units into slightly larger, more meaningful units
*A chunk is a collection of elements strongly associated with one another

Question 15

What is working memory?

Answer 15

Temporary storage and ability to manipulate information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning. Works differently from short-term memory

Question 16

Who proposed working memory?

Answer 16

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Question 17

What is the difference between short-term and working memory?

Answer 17

Short-term memory holds memory for a short time while working memory is storage, processing, and manipulating information, and is active during cognition.

Question 18

What makes up the Central Executive?

Answer 18

The Phonological Loop and the Visuospatial Sketchpad

Question 19

What does the Phonological Loop do?

Answer 19

Encodes information verbally; articulating it—even through ASL—keeps it active

Question 20

What does the Phonological Loop consist of?

Answer 20

*Phonological Store—Limited capacity storage that holds information for a few seconds
*Artic Rehearsal—Responsible for rehearsal that keeps items in phonological storage from decaying

Question 21

What is the word length effect?

Answer 21

Memory for a list of words is better for short than long words. Takes longer to rehearse long words and to produce them during recall.

Question 22

What is the Phonological similarity effect?

Answer 22

Letters or words that sound similar are confused, like “F” with “S” or “X” rather than “E”

Question 23

What is Articulatory Suppression?

Answer 23

Speaking prevents one from rehearsing items to be remembered
*Like saying “the” repeatedly

Question 24

What is the effect of Articulatory Suppression?

Answer 24

It reduces memory span, eliminates word length effect, and reduces phonological similarity

Question 25

What does the Visuospatial Sketchpad do?

Answer 25

Collects visual and spacial information and is active during visual tasks
Creation of visual images in the mind in the absence of the physical stimulus

Question 26

What does the Central Executive do?

Answer 26

It functions as an attention controller; it doesn’t store info but coordinates how info is used by the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.
Focus, divide, and switch attention

Question 27

What is perseveration?

Answer 27

Repeatedly preforming the same action or thought even if it is not achieving the desired goal.

Question 28

How is the Central Executive often studied?

Answer 28

By examining patients with brain damage

Question 29

What is Episodic Buffer

Answer 29

Backup storage that communicated with long-term and working memory. Holds information for longer and has greater capacity than a phonological loop or visuospatial sketchpad.

Question 30

Which part of the brain is responsible for processing incoming visual and auditory information?

Answer 30

Prefrontal cortex

Question 31

How is information stored?

Answer 31

Short-term changes in neural networks

Question 32

Activity-Silent working memory

Answer 32

Activity state: information to be remembered causes neurons to fire
Synaptic state: Neuron firing stops, but connections between neurons are strengthened

Question 33

What does the connection between working memory and cognitive control do?

Answer 33

It allows people to regulate their behavior and attentional resources, and resist the temptation to give in to impulses.

Question 34

Are people with poor cognitive control easier or harder to distract?

Answer 34

Easier; People with poor cognitive control are easily distracted