Lecture 3

Question 1

What are three criticisms of the original multistore model?

Answer 1

1. sensory store, STM and LTM are not unitary
2. over-emphasis of structural aspects of memory, rather than processes
3. STM is not the gateway to LTM

Question 2

What was the main deficit of Patient KF?

Answer 2

inability to repeat verbal material - digit/letter/word span of 1

Question 3

What is evidence for independence of ST & LT memory in neuropsychology?

Answer 3

amnesics - damage to the medial temporal lobe: impaired long-term memory, in-tact short term
patient K.F&others - damage to the parietal & temporal lobes: normal long-term memory, poor short term memory

Question 4

What did Baddeley and Hitch (1974) do?

Answer 4

replaced the concept of “short-term store” with “working memory” by proposing subcomponents within the STM

Question 5

What are the four subcomponents of the STM store?

Answer 5

1. central executive
2. phonological loop
3. visuo-spatial sketchpad
4. episodic buffer

Question 6

What does the central executive compose?

Answer 6

modality free, resembles attentions, deals with any demanding task, uses slave systems

Question 7

What does the phonological loop do?

Answer 7

(inner voice) holds info in a speech-based form

Question 8

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 8

(inner eye) specialised for spatial and visual coding and manipulation

Question 9

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 9

temporary storage system - holds and integrates info from phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and LTM

Question 10

Components of the working memory model system are thought to be…

Answer 10

limited in capacity and relatively indepndent - if two tasks use the same component they cannot be used succesfully together

Question 11

What did Conrad (1964) find about phonological similarity?

Answer 11

short-term memory uses a phonological code, even for visually presented stimuli

Question 12

What are two findings of Baddeley’s (1966) about the phonological similarity effect?

Answer 12

1. Immediate serial recall of visually presented words is worse with a phonologically similar list, compared to a dissimiar list
2. suggests that we use speech-based rehearsal processes within the phonological loop

Question 13

What does the word length effect show?

Answer 13

Memory span is lower for words taking a long time to say - suggests that capacity of phonological loop is determined by articulatory duration

Question 14

What does articulatory suppression do?

Answer 14

e.g. counting repeatedly - eliminates phonological similarity effect & word length effect for visually presented stimuli but not for auditorily presented stimuli

Question 15

Why doesn’t articulatory suppression eliminate the phonological similarity effect & the word length effect for auditorily presented stimuli?

Answer 15

auditory presentation allows direct access to the phonological store - visually presented stimuli are recorded into phonological form by means of subvocalisation

Question 16

What are the two main components of the phonological loop system?

Answer 16

1. passive phonological store

2. articulatory control process

Question 17

What is the passive phonological store in the phonological loop system? 3 points

Answer 17

1. holds verbal info - 1.5-2secs
2. auditory presentation of words has direct access - doesnt need rehearsal
3. visual presentation only has indirect access

Question 18

What is the articulatory control process? 3 points

Answer 18

1. like subvocal speech
2. maintains phonological info by rehearsal
3. provides indirect access to the phonological store for visual input

Question 19

What is the phonological loop for? 3 points

Answer 19

1. used in temporary storage and manipulation of phonological (speech) info
2. involved in learning new word forms (e.g. foreign vocab)
3. may be involved in reading (dyslexia)

Question 20

Logie (1995) claimed that the visuo-spatial sketchpad consists of two components, what are they?

Answer 20

1. visual cache

2. inner scribe

Question 21

What is the inner-cache in the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 21

stores info about visual form and colour

Question 22

What is the inner-scribe in the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 22

processes spatial and movement info, involved in rehesearsal of info in visual cache, transfers info from cache to central executive

Question 23

Why did Baddeley (2000) add the episodic buffer?

Answer 23

components original model were too separate in their functioning

Question 24

What was Norman & Shallice’s view of attentional control?

Answer 24

two forms of attentional control in conflict resolution e.g. stroop test- GREEN(in red font colour)

Question 25

According to Norman & Shallice, what are schemas?

Answer 25

e.g. word reading, colour naming - are habit patterns, are triggered by cues in the environment

Question 26

According to Norman & Shallice, what is contention schedueling?

Answer 26

prioritises schemas based on their strength - e.g. word reading stronger than colour naming

Question 27

According to Norman and Shallice, what is the supervisory attentional system (SAS)?

Answer 27

fully conscious control, involved in situations where routine control is insufficient (e.g. name the colour, not the word)

Question 28

Where is the supervisory attentional system likely to be located?

Answer 28

prefrontal cortex

Question 29

Damage to the SAS could result in 3 things…?

Answer 29

1. utilisation behaviour
2. dysexecuative behaviour
3. difficulty in novel situations

Question 30

What were the four functions in the executive system that Baddeley suggested?

Answer 30

1. ability to focus
2. ability to divide attention
3. ability to switch attention
4. ability to relate the content of working memory to LTM

Question 31

What were the three functions in the executive functioning system that Miyake came up with?

Answer 31

1. inhibition function
2. shifting function
3. updating function

Question 32

What are the strengths of the Central Executive function?

Answer 32

evidence that inhibition, updating, shifting and dual-task co-ordination may be four major executive processes

Question 33

What are limitations of the Central Executive function?

Answer 33

notion of a single ‘dysexecutive syndrome’ is misleading

Question 34

What do short-term memory tasks compose of?

Answer 34

domain specific - e.g. digit span, verbal memory

Question 35

What do working memory tasks involve?

Answer 35

trying to maintain info in active memory whilst simulataneously performng distracting activities e.g. operation span task