Components of Memory

Question 1

MEMORY STORAGE MODEL

Answer 1

ATKINSON & SHIFFRIN (1968)

• incoming stimuli -> SM (lost if ignored) + attention = STM/WM (lost if not encoded/rehearsed) + elaborative rehearsal = LTM
• LTM forgetting = retrieval failure/interference/decay theory
• SM = brief/passive/modality buffers ie. iconic/echoic
• STM = only attended items represented; can be operated/initiate action/transferred into LTM; limited capacity; contents decay/displace via new inputs/info retrieval from LTM unless maintained

Question 2

STM/WM

Answer 2

BADDELEY & HITCH (1974)

- central executive phonological loop/episodic buffer/visuo-spatial sketchpad LTM

Question 3

LTM

Answer 3

EXPLICIT (DECLARATIVE)
- episodic (experienced events)
- semantic (knowledge/concepts)
IMPLICIT (NON-DECLARATIVE)
- procedural (skills/action)
- emotional conditioning

Question 4

WM/LTM INDIVIDUALITY

Answer 4

JAMES (1890)
- introspection = primary VS secondary memory
- computers use temporary work-spaces to keep info analysable/temporarily store unimportant info
PHYSIOLOGY
- info in current neural activity VS changes in synaptic strength
- (MULLER 1900); new info during initial consolidation into LTM; needs protein synthesis
- (FUSTER, 1989); cells in monkey pre-frontal cortex show sustained activation in delayed-response/match-sample tests

Question 5

WM

Answer 5

• primary/STM/active memory
• arguments for independence: introspection/physiology/consideration of computational utility/experiments on normal subjects/bran damage effects

Question 6

STM FORGETTING

Answer 6

MURDOCK (1961)

• Brown-Peterson distraction paradigm
• pp reads short 3 word list; tries retention while counting back x3 until cued to recall
• retention interval varies trial-trial; rapidly declines over time then levels; proves 2 memory components

Question 7

STM FREE RECALL FORGETTING

Answer 7

MURDOCK (1962)

• pp sees/hears a long item sequence
• tries recall; if one asks to recall last items + relatively well remembered = recency effect

Question 8

STM FORGETTING PATTERNS

Answer 8

SINGLE-TRACE THEORY
- memory trace decays rapidly at start then slows
DUAL-TRACE THEORY
- retrieval after short interval mediated via temporary rapidly decaying memory trace; retrieval after long interval mediated by more permanent memory trace
- supported by:
A) retention over short interval influenced by factors not influencing retention over a long interval
B) retention over long interval influenced by factors that don’t influence retention over short interval

Question 9

FREE RECALL IMPAIRMENT

Answer 9

MURDOCK (1962)
- the longer the list the fewer items recalled but recency effect is unchanged
GLANZER & CUNITZ (1966)
- faster presentation rate reduces recall of items presented NOT recent items; same for longer ones
- single dissociation consistent w/single memory trace whose decay rate is manipulated
- counting back at end eliminates recency effect but not prob of recall of earlier items
- some earlier items recovered from dif permanent trace

Question 10

SPERLING’S PARTIAL REPORT SUPERIORITY EFFECT (1960)

Answer 10

• whole array report = poor (3-4 items)
• cued report of a row = good (3-4 items)
• if cued at display offset effect lost -1s; image of all objects briefly outlasts display (iconic)
• pre/post fields dark, advantage lasts -5s

Question 11

VISUAL WM/CHANGE DETECTION

Answer 11

RENSINCK, O’REGAN & CLARK (1997)

• brief interpolated blank frame produces transients over visual field; attention no longer automatically attracted to change
• only way to detect change is comparing present display w/memory for objects in previous frame
• difficult change detection unless region attended; limited memory for previous objects = change blindness

Question 12

CHANGE BLINDNESS/TRANSITION FROM ICONIC TO VISUAL WORKING MEMORY (VSTS)

Answer 12

• dif attributes of objects in visual field represented by local activity in multiple visual cortex maps; separate ones for orientation/movement/colour
• activity persists beyond stimulus offset/memory unless overwritten w/new retinal image but not long
• remains available; feature binding by focal attention creates object files in VSTS
• w/o attending object in previous frame; file made it into VSTS; won’t detect change

Question 13

VISUAL STM VS VISUAL LTM INDEPENDENCE

Answer 13

PHILLIPS & CHRISTIE (1977)

• 8 Phillips checkerboards followed by sequence of test checkers same as/dif to each pattern in 1st sequence but in reverse; pp decides which one
• recency effect = final item much better remembered; eliminated by 5s of mental arithmetic
• most recent complex array seen held in visual STS