Lecture 1 Flashcards
Working Memory
Supports temporary memory and moment-to-moment monitoring and processing of information every waking moment. Contrast with knowledge and experiences
- continually updated
How does working memory interact with long term memory?
Interacts with our knowledge of the world, knowing what things are and how they impact your life in addition to updating this knowledge as you go
What is working memory crucial for?
Independent Living
How did John Locke (1690) view working memory?
Memory is created in two ways:
Contemplation (working memory - by keeping the idea which is brought into it, for some time actually in view
Storehouse - the power to revive again in our minds those ideas which after imprinting, have disapeared.
William James (1890), what term did he use for working memory? and what did he define it as?
Primary memory - The portion of time which we directly intuit has a breadth of several seconds, a rearward and a forward end, and may be called the specious present… They give rise to objects which appear to mind as events just past
Waugh and Norman (1965) did what?
Revived the concept of “primary memory” and developed a theory of short-term memory
Miller Galanter and Pibram (1960)
Used the term “working memory” but did not specify in detail
Names of Researchers and Date that created the “Modal Model”
Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968
What was atkinson and Shffrin’s description of working memory?
Limited in capacity, and focused on temporary verbal memory
Main Issues with the modal Model? (3)
- Problem with Short-Term Verbal Memory - Only a small amount short term memory can hold at one time
- Issue with people who had amnesia as a result of brain damage but their short term memory is intact, that should be impossible with this model
- If one is broken the other shouldn’t work either according to this model - Takes little account of non-verbal memory - Has to go through our stored knowledge before it gets into our short term memory as otherwise it would make no sense what we are seeing
What actually is the modal model (4 parts)
environment - sensory memory - short-term memory - long-term memory
What can people agree on about working memory?
It supports moment-to-moment monitoring and processing in a wide range of everyday tasks
Which researchers (and dates) came up with the short term memory model (STM)
Baddeley and Hitch (1974), Baddeley (1986)
What assumptions did the researchers test on the STM model?
STM assumed to be involved in everyday tasks such as language comprehension as well as immediate verbal memory
What are the names of parts of working memory in the Baddeley theory?
- Phonological loop
- Visuo-spatial sketch pad
- central executive
What does the phonological loop do?
Thought to store verbal sequences as phonological codes (stores words and mental rehearsal)
But decays over 2 seconds unless mentally rehearsed.
“2 7 1 4”
Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
Thought to store visual arrays and patterns, and to support mental imagery. Decays over a few seconds unless mentally rehearsed.
Central Executive
Thought to co-ordinate other two systems and to undertake higher cognitive functions such as comprehension, reasoning, decision making etc.
Digit Span
Maximum digit sequence recalled = Capacity of verbal working memory
How is digit span measured?
Part 2: Maximum digit sequence recalled =
How many numbers one can recall when shown
= capacity of verbal working memory