Memory Flashcards
What is a key factor in Atkinson’s and Shiffrin’s Modal Model of memory (1968)?
The route to long-term memory is always through short-term memory
Sensory stores -> Short-term store (STS) -> Long-term store (LTS)
How did Shallice and Warrington (1970) demonstrate that the Modal Model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1978) was inaccurate?
Neurological patient showing severe ST memory impairment in verbal tasks
BUT no impairment in verbal LT memory
- ST and LT memory do not use the same neurological structures
- There can’t be a sequential route from ST memory to LT memory
- otherwise any impairment in ST memory would prevent somebody possessing normal LT memory
What is working memory for Baddeley and Hitch (1974)?
Separate short-term stores for different types of information
How did Baddeley and Hitch (1974) develop the influential model of working memory?
> Digit span task and Spatial learning task
- keeping digits in mind (correctly recalled trials) did not modulate reasoning accuracy
-> Both tasks need short-term memory -> so they don’t rely on the same resources
=> Working memory (replaced the idea of ST memory)
What are the two key assumptions of the Model of Working Memory of Baddeley and Hitch (1974)?
Visuo-spatial sketch pad ; Central executive ; Phonological store
- If two tasks use the same part of working memory they cannot be carried out well
- If the two tasks are using different parts, they should be completed accurately
How did Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak (1993) find about the neurological correlates of verbal working memory (phonological store)?
> Authors thought English-speaking participants would
- use phonological store for keeping in mind English letters
- and use visuo-spatial store for Korean characters (not verbally rehearsible)
> Participants isolated recall of English letters, not Korean characters, to 2 areas of left hemisphere:
- one more frontal
- the other more parietal
> Phonological store vs. articulatory loop (PET scan)
- memory task: storing in mind 6 letters
- rhyming task
What were the neurological correlates of verbal working memory found by Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak (1993)?
> Left parietal: Verbal memory
> Left frontal: Neural correlate of articulatory loop
- overlaps with Broca’s area (speech production)
How did Postle and colleagues (2004) founded the concept of spatial working memory?
Task in fMRI
- initial fixation -> Target -> Delay (V1 stimulation) -> Probe -> Intertrial interval
- respond to whether the target participants had seen before delay period, was to the left or right or same position as to where the probe items were now presented
- > they had to maintain the target’s position in their spatial working memory over the delay period
=> Spatial working memory used for creating visual mental images
What are the regions associated with verbal working memory, and spatial working memory (Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak, 1993; Postle et al., 2004)?
> Left parietal regions: Verbal working memory
> Right parietal regions: Spatial working memory
just as for spatial attention
How does inhibited spatial working memory impact patients with neglects, in neglect tasks?
Lower performance:
- cancellation task without being able to see where he/she has cancelled items
- > when he/she has to keep locations in mind, it adds spatial working memory element to the task
- > performance is much worse
What are the three principal functions of the Central Executive in the the Model of Working Memory (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974)?
- Decides what information should go into the different stores
- Organises which store the information should go to
- It is also used to inspect, transform, manipulate the information being held in the stores
What are the two processes of long-term memory?
- Explicit (declarative) memory
- can consciously access and explain (e.g. skills) - Implicit (non-declarative) memory
- cannot describe or define
- no access through conscious recollection
What is priming and which process of long term memory does it reflect?
Exposure to some stimuli may alter participant’s responses to later stimuli
- without them recalling the first (priming) stimuli or knowing its affecting their responses
-> implicit (non-declarative) memory
What is amnesia?
Specific problem in long-term memory, without decline of other cognitive functions
What are the two types of amnesia?
- Retrograde amnesia
2. Anterograde amnesia