L3 - Working Memory Flashcards
Who suggested the concept of a multicomponent model to replace short term memory?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974) - created the concept of working memory.
What are the components of Baddeley and Hitch’s working memory model?
- Central executive
- Phonological loop
- Visuo-spatial sketch pad
- Episodic buffer
What are the features of the central executive?
- central pool of control and decision processes
- no real storage
- modality free
What are the features of the phonological loop?
- inner ear
- inner voice
- verbal rehearsal
- speech-based
What are the features of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
- inner eye
- spatial and visual coding
What has more influence on recall: interference or decay?
Interference, according to Berman et al. (2009). If decay was the more influential factor, then increasing the time between presentation and recall should disrupt performance, but there is no effect. Disruption effect was mostly eliminated when interference from previous trials were reduced.
What is the phonological loop?
A temporary store of speech-like information which functions as a language acquisition device.
What are the components of the phonological loop?
- Phonological store
- Articulatory loop
What is the ‘inner ear’?
The phonological store
What is the ‘inner voice’?
Articulatory loop
What is the ‘inner eye’?
Visuo-spatial sketchpad.
What are the two main pieces of evidence that support the working model of memory?
- Phonological similarity effect
- Word length effect
- Unattended speech effect
- Articulatory suppression effect
What is the phonological similarity effect?
Errors in learning of items are more likely to occur when distractor items are phonologically similar to the correct/target item.
What is the word length effect?
Memory span for shorter words is greater than for long words, due to the shorter articulatory duration, rather than the number of syllables in the word.
(more words can be rehearsed sub-vocally, as it takes less time to articulate them (sub-vocally).
What is the digit span in relation to working memory?
The number of words that the articulatory loop can actively rehearse within 2 seconds.
How can digit span explain the apparent greater memory that Chinese-speaking people have, in comparison to English-speaking people.
Chinese languages involve a higher rate of word articulation and therefore have a greater digit span. This allows them to actively rehearse more words for every two seconds, meaning their working memory is better.
What is the unattended speech effect?
The impairment of performance due to other verbal material which needs to be ignored.
Why can distracting verbal material impair performance?
The verbal material can gain access to the phonological store.
The phonological store has a filter to ________?
Distinguish between noise and speech.
What is the articulatory suppression effect?
The prevention of rehearsal of learning material by overt or covert articulation of nonsense words or syllables.
Which type of information can access the phonological store directly?
Audial information
Which type of information can access the phonological store indirectly?
Visual information - it must be spoken sub-vocally with the inner voice.
What is function of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
To construct, maintain and manipulate mental images.
What are the components of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
- visual cache: visual information about the shape and colour (what)
- inner scribe: spatial and movement information (where).
What is evidence for mental images corresponding to the actuality of an image?
Mental images of a map - participants take longer to travel between two points ‘in their head’ if they are further apart in real life.
What are the features of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
- limited capacity
- processes spatial, visual and kinaesthetic information.
What is the central executive?
An attentional system which maintains task goals, goal-related information and uses this to direct processing.
What are the features of the central executive?
- limited attentional capacity
- no storage
- most important and active component of the model
What are the 3 main pieces of evidence for the central executive, caused by dysexecutive syndrome?
Conditions caused by dys-executive syndrome:
- perseverance
- utilisation behaviour
- catonia
What is perseverance?
the inability to interrupt ongoing schemas (e.g. can’t switch sorting cards to suit from value, on Wisconsin card sorting for example)
What is utilisation behaviour?
the automatic response to cues in the environment - a failure to focus attention.
What is catatonia?
the inability to initiate schemas, leading to patients being motionless and speechless for hours on end.
What are the 2 main conditions which demonstrate the importance of the central executive?
- Dysexecutive syndrome (frontal lobe damage)
- Alzheimer’s patients
Why are Alzheimer’s patents demonstrators of the importance of the central executive?
They have difficulty distributing attention between two tasks - their impairment on dual task experiments is much more significant than normal.
What is the episodic buffer?
A link between the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the phonological loop which integrates information from each into a single complex structure.
What are the features of the episodic buffer?
- holds onto 4 pieces of information in multidimensional code
- can help with binding, interaction with perception and long term memory.
