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
Describe how Baddeley & Hitch (1974) tested language comprehension?
1.Remember sequences of numbers
- Then tested for language comprehension in yes or no language questions “Paris is in France yes or no?”
- Then recall the number sequence again
What did they find when Baddeley and Hitch (1974) asked people to remember a digit sequence while performing their language comprehension test?
No errors in language comprehension
3 digits - accurate but takes longer to respond
Short term memory can hold 3 digits with no overlap
After 3 digits it compromises speed of response to questions
Moreover they overlap as the task becomes more difficult, using more than one part of the cognitive system
What were Baddeley and Hitch (1974) results when testing reasoning with working memory
Time to respond increased with more digits in the number sequence. Errors were not made throughout
Describe a measure of visuospatial working memory
Maximum complexity of the pattern = capacity of visual working memory
What was found when people were asked to remember a digit sequence while also remembering the visual working memory pattern?
Visual working memory is not disrupted when combined with digit recall,
Name the researcher who reported visual working memory pattern and give the date of the reference
Cocchini et al (2002)
What disrupts memory for visual patterns, and who carried out the study showing this? When was that study published?
It is disrupted by irrelevant visual input
Della Sala et al (1999)
What was concluded from Della Sala et al (1999) study on visual spatial working memory?
Visual and verbal working memory appear to be seperable
What was added to the Baddeley working memory theory and when?
He added an “Episodic Buffer” in 2000
What did the episodic buffer do?
It was for integrating visual and auditory information
Verbal and visual representation (of a dog for example)
Who suggested that working memory might be activated, learned memory skills?
Anders Ericsson (2014)
What is the name of Cowan’s theory of working memory?
Embedded Process Model
What does the diagram look like and what are the 3 elements
A fried egg
Outer layer - LTM Second layer (white) - Activated LTM
Inner layer (yolk) - Focus of attention
Explain how the embedded process model describes working memory
There is what you think of now,
Activated things related to that or recently observed
And all of memory.
These sorts of conceptions do away with the fallacies related to separate buffers, because there are not any: the focus is not necessarily physically separate from activated or less-activated memory. It is merely in a privileged state.
Problems of the embedded process model
In reality, these non-modular models become modular, because modality effects are so pervasive that all modelers must try to explain them.
What is the name of the theory of working memory proposed by Barrouillet and Camos?
Time Based Resource Sharing in working memory
Describe how the time based resource sharing of working memory explain memory
Capacity is limited by the time that attention can focus on particular material. In dual task situations, people ‘swap’ their attention rapidly from one task to another
Immediately after letters disappear the memory is decaying, as soon as you respond you have a bit of time to reactivate the memory until the next one
What does ACT-R model stand for and who wrote about it?
Adaptive Control of Thought—Rational, wrote by Anderson 2008
What does the ACT-R model entail?
ACT-R’s most important assumption is that human knowledge can be divided into two irreducible kinds of representations: declarative (things you know) and procedural (acquired skills).
WM is limited by amount of resource available for activation and essentially comprises of LTM
Amount of resources available varies by person 0 hence WM span
More complex goals require more knowledge to be activated so the resource is spread more thin
Implemented as a computational model
Procedural Memory
Acquired skills, representing knowledge of how we do things
Declarative Memory
Activating prior knowledge (facts you know)
How does ACT-R explain task interference?
Dual task interferences arrises because of the similarity in type of material required to be activated
OR
Because the available resource is spread too thinly and the task demands exceed overall capacity
Name 2 challenges to ACT-R
If goals are achieved by activated learned skills, how do we generate anything new? (although model can learn)
How an the model account for lack of dual task interference between 2 very demanding (at span) tasks, and the relative lack of an impact of processing demand on storage?
What is working memory span?
Capacity for holding a memory load while processing
WMS = processing + storage
Items may include words, numbers, or letters
How did Daneman and Carpenter (1980) test WM span
“reading and listening” span
Recalling the last word of each sentence, until you cannot
How did Turner and Engle (1989) test WM span
“Operation Span”
Maths equation followed by a word at the end, recall the word, more and more until you can’t
How many words do people vary by normally in WM span test
2-6
What does WM span assume?
Assumes a single general purpose system for processing + storage
How is WM span different to digit span?
Digit span is memory only, not processing
Digit span shows poorer correlations with other measures of ability in comparison
What does WM span correlate with?
Other measure of mental ability e.g. school aptitude tests
What does WM span arguably show (correlate well with)?
Offers a general measure of ability, not just of language good correlations with:
1) Measures of general fluid intelligence or ‘g’ (Kane & Engle, 2002)
2) Control of attention (“)
3) Affected by frontal lobe damage and linked with impairments of attentional control
4) Retrieval from LTM as well as current maintenance (Unsworth et al 2009)
What is the full name of a current international project on working memory?
The WoMAAC Project: Working Memory Across the Lifespan: An Adversarial Collaboration (Logie, Camos, Cowan, Barrouillet)
