Components of Memory Flashcards
Definition of memory?
-process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information of the past which affects the present and possibly future
What’s the memory storage model?
Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968
- sensory input
- short-term memory
- long-term memory
What’s the sensory input store?
- persists very briefly, passively in modality-specific temporary buffers
- iconic memory for vision, echoic memory for audition etc
- only attended items are identified and represented in the STM
What’s the short-term memory store?
- very limited capacity
- contents decary or are overwritten by new input/information retrieved from LTM unless deliberately rehearsed
- can be operated upon, used to initiate/guide action or transfer into LTM
What’s the working memory model?
Baddeley and Hitch, 1974
- central executive
- phonological loop (holds information in speech based form)
- episodic buffer (holds memory traces of episodes that you’ve experienced)
- visuo-spatial sketchpad (holds visual and spatial information)
- if paid attention to this information can be transferred to LTM
What are the components of long-term memory?
- explicit (declarative): episodic and semantic
- implicit (non-declarative): procedural and emotional conditioning
What are the reasons for suggesting working and long-term memory are separate?
- introspection (primary (available without effort) vs secondary (requires effort to retrieve) memory)
- physiology
- complex information processing systems use temporary ‘work-spaces’
Where do the arguments that they aren’t distinct come from?
- introspection
- physiology
- consideration of computational utility
- experiments on normal subjects
- effects of brain damage
How is short-term forgetting measured?
- using the Brown-Peterson distraction paradigm: participant reads short list and tries to retain it while counting backwards in 3s, retention rapidly declines over time before leveling off (evidence for 2 memory components)
- using free recall: participant sees/hears long sequence and then has to recall as many as possible, when asked to recall last items they’re remembered well (recency effect)
How is the pattern of short-term forgetting explained?
- single-trace theory (memory trace decays rapidly to start with, then slower)
- dual-trace theory (retrieval after short interval mediated by temporary rapidly-decaying memory trace and retrieval after long interval mediated by a more permanent memory trace)
What is double dissociation?
- shows if one process is disturbed the other is intact
- technique for distinguishing components of the mind
How does list length impact recall?(Glanzer and Cunitz, 1966)
- longer the list the fewer items are recalled but recency effect is unchanged
- faster presentation rate reduces recall of those earlier but not of recent items (single dissociation, consistent with decay rate that’s changed by manipulations)
- counting backwards after list eliminates recency effect but not the recall of early items (double dissociation), earlier items recovered are from more permanent trace
How does the ‘partial report’ superiority effect impact recall?
(Sperling, 1960)
- given 4 by 3 grid of letters
- given cue after seeing them and asked to recall the cued row
- when cued 50ms after array was shown, recall was really good
- performance rapidly declined, after 1 second performance was poor
How does change-detection relate to recall?
Philips, 1974
- used checkerboards of pattern that couldn’t be visualised
- after delay a second one was presented and had to report whether it was the same or different
- performance is caused by 2 memory traces: schematic image trace and iconic trace
- schematic trace is longer lasting and influenced by pattern complexity
- iconic trace is rapidly decaying and influenced by retinal position and visual mask manipulation
- double dissociation as manipulation only affected one of the traces, there’s 2 different stores for visual spatial information
Change detection in visual working memory?
- brief interpolated blank frame produces transients over visual field so attention is no longer automatically attracted to region of change
- only way to detect change is comparing it to memory of previous frame so changes aren’t easily detected
- limited time frame for objects in previous frame (change blindness)
