Chapter Five - Short Term + Working Memory Flashcards
what is memory?
processes involve in retaining, retrieving, using info about stimuli, images, events, ideas + skills
____ affects the present and possibly _____
past, future
memory
active system that stores, organizes, alters, recovers info
What is encoding?
converting info into a usable form for storage
What is storage?
holding info in memory
What is retrieval?
taking memories out of storage
What is sensory memory?
- storing exact copy of incoming info for less than a second
- first stage of memory
What is an icon?
fleeting mental image/visual rep.
What is an echo?
- after sound is heard
- brief continuation of sound in auditory system
what is short term memory?
- second stage of memory
- stores small about of info briefly
- sensitive to interruption/interference
What is the span of short term memory?
-limited to holding ~7 bits of info
What is a chunk?
meaningful units of info in memory
What is recoding?
reorganizing or modifying information in STM
What is maintenance Rehearsal
reaping information silently to prolong its presence in STM
What is elaborative rehearsal?
-links new info with existing memories + knowledge in LTM
What is elaborative rehearsal used for?
transferring STM information into LTM
What are 4 characteristics of LTM?
- storing info relatively permanently
- stored on basis of meaning + importance
- more passive form of storage than WM
- unlimited capacity
What are the 2 main types of long term memory?
- explicit (declarative) memory (facts)
2. implicit (procedural) memory (skills)
What are 2 types of explicit memory?
- semantic (impersonal facts + everyday knowledge)
2. episodic (personal experiences linked with specific times and places
What is implicit memory?
-long term memories of conditioned responses + learned skills (eg driving)
What are the 3 types of memory in the Modal Model of Memory?
- sensory
- short term
- long term
what is sensory memory?
- initial stage
- holds all incoming info for seconds/fractions of a second
What is short term memory?
-holds 5-7 items for 15-20 seconds
What is long term memory?
-holds large amount of info for years-decades
What are the stages of the modal model of memory?
- input
- sensory memory
- short term memory
rehearsal, output - long term memory (cycles back to short term)
What are control processes? example?
-active processes that can be controlled by the person
-used to make stimulus more memorable
-help focus on spec. stimuli
EX: maintenance rehearsal
What is maintenance rehearsal?
-repeating a stimulus over and over
What happens to info in the sensory memory?
-info decays very quickly
What is persistence of vision?
-retention of perception of light
EX: sparkler’s trail of light
Frames in film
What are 3 characteristics of sensory memory?
- collects info
- holds info for initial processing
- fills in the blank
What did Sperling test in 1960? How?
- measured capacity + duration of sensory memory
- array of letters flashed quickly on screen
- participants asked to report as many as possible
What is the whole report method?
-participants asked to report as many as could be seen
What is the partial report method?
- after viewing items participants heard tone
- told them which row of letters to report
What is the delayed partial report method?
- same as partial report
- but with short delay between display of letters + tone
Order these in terms of percentage remembered: whole, partial, delayed
- partial (82%)
- whole (37.5%)
- delay (25%)
What was Sperling ultimately studying?
visual sensory memory
What did people think before Sperling’s study?
-visual sensory memory could only hold 4-5 items (full report cond.)
What were the 2 major findings of Sperling’s ex.?
- true that people can only report 4-5 items before memory decays
- sensory memory actually encodes the whole scene
What is the ultimate conclusion of Sperling’s experiment?
-sensory memory has a large capacity, but fast decay
What did Sperling find about the timing of decay?
- within just 1 second, most sensory memory decays
- leaving only what was moved to STM via attention
What is iconic memory?
- brief sensory memory of things that we see
- persistence of vision
What is echoic memory?
- brief sensory memory of things that we hear
- persistence of sound
What are some functions of STM?
- understand sentences
- do arithmetic
- dial phone number
- navigate
- know where we are/what we are doing right now
Who is Clive Wearing?
- lives without short term memory
- only has procedural LTM
What is duration?
how long things stay in memory
What is capcity?
how many things fit in memory at a time
_____ extends duration, while ____ extends capacity
rehearsal, chunking
What task was used to test the duration of short term memory/
Brown/Peterson Task
What are the 4 steps of the Brown/Peterson Task?
- three letters + one number given
- count backward from number by 3s
- 3-18s. delay (while counting backward)
- recall three letters
What is the result of the Brown/Peterson Task?
- longer the time goes by, the more you forget
- percentage of letters recalled decreases with longer delays
What is also important to consider in the Brown/Peterson task?
- where in the series of trials the individual trail occurs
- recall of letters after long delays decreases as series of trials get longer
What was the ultimate conclusion of Brown/Peterson Task?
-memory trace vanished because of decay that occurred during passage of time
What is proactive interference?
-type of forgetting in STM
-what is already in STM affects ability to add new things
EX: native language makes it more difficult to learn new language
What are 2 factors that contribute to forgetting in the STM?
- decay
2. interference
What is the effective duration of short term memory?
15-20 seconds
What are interference theories/
- forgetting not caused by mere passage of time
- caused by one memory competing with another/replacing
What are 2 types of interference?
- retroactive interference
2. proactive interference
What is retroactive interference?
-new memory interferes with remembering old information
EX: new phone number interferes with ability to remember old phone number
What is proactive interference?
-old memory interferes with remembering new information
EX: memories of where you parked car past week interferes with ability to find car today
What is digit span?
-measure of capacities
What is the digit span test?
- see list of single digit numbers
- remember them
- see “go,” write them from memory in order
how many digits were in the longest row that you got completely right?
What did Luck and Vogel study?
- change detection to measure capacity of STM
- STM capacity ~4 items
What did Miller find about capacity?
people can remember 7+/-2
- digits
- words
- numbers
- phrases
What is chunking?
- combining smaller units into larger meaningful units
- improve capacity
- using LTM memories to organize info in STM
Who are Chase and Simon?
-found that chess players chunk info based on meaningful points within a game of chess
What did Ericsson find about chunking?
- trained college student with avg. memory to use chunking
- increased digit span from 7 to 79
What did Alvarez + Cavanaugh think?
-experimenters who suggested that memory capcity should be described in terms of “amount of information” rather than “number of items”
What was Alvarez + Cavanaugh’s experiment?
- used colored squares + complex objects
- used change detection procedure
What did Alvarez + Cavanaugh find?
-ability to make same/different judgement depended on complexity of stimuli
(more complex = lower capacity)
What is working memory according to Baddeley and Hitch?
-similar concept to short term memory
What is working memory?
- limited capacity system for temporary storage/manipulation of info
- for complex tasks like comprehension, learning, reasoning
How does working memory differ from STM?
-STM holds info for brief period of time
EX: remembering phone number
-WM concerned with processing/manipulation of info that occurs during complex recognition
EX: remembering numbers while reading a paragraph
What is Attkinson + Shifrin’s short term memory model?
- single component for all types of info
- mainly used for holding info for short time
What are the 3 components of Baddeley + Hitch’s working memory model?
- central executive
- visuospatial sketchpad
- phonological loopo
What is the phonological loop?
-holds verbal + auditory info
What are the 2 parts of the phonological loop?
- phonological store: limited capacity, holds info for only a few seconds
- articulatory rehearsal process: rehearsal that can keep items in phon. store from decaying
What is the visuospatial sketch pad?
-holds visual + spatial information
What is the central executive?
- pulls info from long-term memory
- coordinates other components
- directs + maintains attention
What are the stages of the Baddeley + Hitch WM model?
- input
- sensory memory
- central executive
phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad - long term knowledge
What is the phonological similarity effect?
- letters/words that sound similar are confused
- not those that look similar
How did Conrad study the phonological similarity effect?
- participants saw target letters (quickly flashed)
- half of time letters were similar, half time they weren’t
- participants wrote them down
- mistakes were made
What mistakes were made in Conrad’s study?
- not likely to replace with something that looked like target (E for F)
- likely to replace with something that SOUNDED like target (E for B)
What was the point of the phonological similarity effect experiment?
- demonstrated that even though info was presented visually, people converted it to auditory
- phonological loop necessary for conversion (not just holding info)
What is the word-length effect?
- memory for lists of words is better for short words than long words
- takes longer to rehearse long words + produce them during recall
What is an example of the word-length effect?
-American children have longer digit spans than Welsh children because Welsh numbers take longer to pronounce
What is articulatory suppression?
- speaking interferes with rehearsal
- memory is reduced
What is the result of the articulatory suppression?
- if you speak while memorizing (keeps phonological loop busy)
- get worse at remembering
- other 2 effects disappear
What does the visuospatial sketch pad hold?
- visual + spatial info
- involved in process of visual imagery
What was Brooks’s sentence experiment with the visuospatial sketch pad?
- sentence experiment
1. memorize sentence
2. indicate whether each word is/isn’t a noun
What are the 2 conditions of Brooks’s sentence experiment?
condition 1: indicate by speaking
condition 2: indicate by pointing
What are the results of the Brooks’s sentence experiment?
-pointing was easier than speaking for the participants
What is the explanation to the results of the Brooks’s experiment?
- phonological loop was busy processing sentence
- sketch pad was free
What was Brooks’s F demo?
- memorize shape (F)
- indicate whether each corner is inside corner or outside corner
condition 1: speaking
condition 2: pointing
What were the results of the F demo?
-speaking easier than pointing
OPPOSITE of previous
What is the explanation to the F experiment?
- sketch pad was busy with info
- phonological loop was free
What is the point of Brooks’s studies?
-tasks are easier when info being held in mind + the operation being performed on it involve different types of STM
What do Brooks’s studies also imply?
- the two types of STM are somewhat independent
- separate capacities
What is visual imagery?
- creation of visual images in the mind
- in absence of a physical visual stimulus
What did Shepard study about the visuospatial sketch pad?
mental rotation
What did Kosslyn study about the visuospatial sketch pad?
-visual scanning
What is visual scanning?
-imagine picture
-focus on back of boat
-how many outboard motors (fast response)
-how many circular windows?
(slow response, further away form back)
What is WM set up to process?
-different types of information simultaneously
What does WM have trouble processing?
-similar types of info are presented at the same time
What are 4 functions of the central executive?
- directing + maintaining attention
- controls suppression of irrelevant info
- coordinating sketchpad + phonological loop
- performating calculations
What is preservation?
-repeatedly performing the same action/thought even if it is not achieving desired goal
What is episodic buffer?
-backup store that communicates with LTM and WM components
How does episodic buffer compare to phonological loop + visuospatial sketchpad?
- holds info longer
- greater capacity
What did Vogel study?
- determined participants’ WM
- high capacity and low capacity WM group
- shown either simple or complex stimuli
- measured ERP responses
What were the results of Vogel’s study?
-high-capacity participants were more efficient at ignoring the distractors
What part of the brain is responsible for processing incoming visual/auditory info?
-prefrontal cortex
What are 3 functions of the prefrontal cortex?
- gets inputs from sensory areas
- gets inputs from areas involved in action
- connected to areas involved in long-term memory
What is known about monkeys without prefrontal cortices?
-monkeys without prefrontal cortex have difficulty holding info in WM
What is the delayed response task with monkeys?
- monkeys can remember location over a delay
- PFC removed, can’t do it anymore
What did Funahashi study in terms of WM and the brain?
-single cell recordings from monkey’s PFC during delay-response task
What happens to neurons when stimulus flashed in particular location + during delay?
- neurons responded
- information remains available via these neurons for as long as they continue firing
What have brain imaging shown about memory?
-PFC active when using WM
What other parts show activity in brain imaging during WM use?
- other areas in frontal lobe
- parietal lobe
- cerebellum
- oftentimes simultaneous
