PSYU2239 Cognitive Psych - Working Memory

Question 1

What are architecture and processes in memory?

Answer 1

Architecture is the framework, the way in which the memory is organised.

Processes, the activities occurring within the memory system

Question 2

Multistore model of memory - explain the difference between structures vs processes

Answer 2

Structure is HOW the memory is organised, the infrastructure

Processes are the activities occurring within the memory system

Multistore model of memory places emphasis on the structural aspects of memory vs processes

Question 3

What are the 3 main criticisms of the multistore model of memory?

Answer 3

1 over emphasized the structural aspects of memory ie for short term memory there is STM store, LTM, LTM store
2 STM store and LTM sore are not unitary, they do not operate exclusive of one another
3 STM is NOT the gateway to LTM - the systems are interconnected

Question 4

Referencing the journal article the selective impairment of auditory verbal short-term memory, Brain. Warrington. The patient KF had a left parieto-occipital fracture. Suffers from an inability to repeat verbal material. However his paired associate learning (baby cry) was normal. Which indicated an issue with what?

Second how does this identify an issue in the multistore model of memory?

Answer 4

According to the multistore model of memory, short term memory is a gateway to long term memory, in this case, if this was true, KF wouldn’t be able to perform paired associate words as this is a long term memory function

Impaired STM but intact LTM

STM is not a gateway to LTM and they do not work in isolation

Question 5

Working memory has replaced the terminology or is park of….
Episodic memory and semantic memory have replace what term:…

Answer 5

STM
LTM

Question 6

What is memory

Answer 6

Encoding - create
storage - store
retrieval - access

Question 7

Does long term memory have limited or unlimited capacity?

Answer 7

Unlimited

Question 7

Since we have a limited capacity in our short term memory we need to organise items what is this called

Answer 7

Organisational encoding where you may group or remember in a particular sequence. Giving structure, a substructure under organisational coding is chucking.

Question 7

What is the central executive in the working memory system

Answer 7

Resembles attention
deals with cognitively demanding task
modality free
uses slave systems (phonological loop (inner loop) visuo-spatial sketchpad (inner eye))

Question 8

Long term memory can be broken down into two categories

Answer 8

Explicit / declarative
-semantic - factual knowledge
-episodic - narratives/events

implicit / non-declarative
-procedural how to do things - how do you tie your shoes

Question 9

Baddeley & Hitch’s Working Memory System is a model based on:
short-term store
short-term store with working memory
long term memory

Answer 9

short term store with working memory

Question 10

What is the system in the Working Memory System that was proposed later by Baddeley, and that act to integrate the two slave systems

Answer 10

The episodic buffer

Question 11

Discuss the components of the working memory model by Baddeley & Hitch.

Answer 11

Central executive - resembles attention, control system, coordinates the peripheral storage (slave) systems

Slave systems: visual and speech based. Phonological loop system which holds info in a speech based form, inner voice. Visuo-spatial sketchpad, specialised for spatial visual coding, inner eye.

Episodic buffer: holds and integrates slave system information, integrates and combines.

Question 12

For the working memory model, do the visuo-spatial, episodic buffer, and the phonological loop operate independently? And what is there capacity (describe)

Answer 12

All components of the system are relatively independent of one another with limited capacity.

If two tasks use the same component, they can’t be performed successfully together ie phonological loop and phonological loop . If two tasks use different components, they can be performed together ie visuo-spatial & phonological loop.

Question 13

What is the phonological loop system?

Answer 13

The phonological loop system is the assumed verbal / speech based memory.

Question 14

How does the phonological loop system work?

Answer 14

The phonological loop system works in a loop, there there is a passive phonological store and a articulatory control process. In addition, there is a visual word presentation. input is received from all three although the primary input directly into the phonological store is from the auditory word presentation, there is also input from the visual word presentation and the articulatory control process.

Question 15

In the phonological similarity effect; doing a serial recall ie
phonologically similar fee he knee lee etc
phonologically dissimilar bay hoe it odd etc
Which immediate recall is worse and suggested reason why?

Answer 15

Phonologically dissimilar rates higher, which suggests we use speech-based rehearsal processes within the phonological loop.

Question 16

What is articulatory suppression (also called concurrent articulation)?

Answer 16

While saying out loud a repetitive word/s this stops the (subvocal) articulatory rehearsal of the to-be-remembered material

Question 17

In memory recall, does work length effect complexity or duration?

Answer 17

Articulatory duration rather than the linguistic/phonological complexity. So the longer the word, even if its the same amount of syllables it will be harder for people to recall.

Question 18

What is articulatory rehearsal?

Answer 18

When holding a particular set of information in their heads like a phone number. They often repeat this information over and over again.

Question 19

What is Norman and Shallice’s view of attentional control?

Answer 19

Several attentional schemas may be activated all at once, what determines which is the right response is one of two ways,

contention scheduling coordinates several action schemas on the basis of strength of the schema where practice strengthens the schema ie word reading is more practiced than colour naming, routine habits prevail.

Supervisory attention system SAS - fully conscious control, flexibly controls selection of action schemas according to goal or task. Novel situations where routine control is insufficient ie Stroop task, so you name the colour and not the word.

Question 20

What is executive functioning and what area of the brain houses it?

Answer 20

Executive function is a set of skills that help you get things done. These skills are controlled by an area of your brain called the frontal lobe, and they help you do things such as manage your time, pay attention, plan and organize, remember details, and multitask.

Question 21

Which of the following finding indicates the capacity of the phonological loop is limited by temporal duration?

Question 1Select one:
a.
The phonological similarity effect
b.
The word length effect in immediate serial recall
c.
The finding that free recall of picture names is better for those that sound alike (e.g., CAP, CAT, TAP, MAP)
d.
All of the above
e.
None of the above

Answer 21

The correct answer is: The word length effect in immediate serial recall

Question 22

The phonological loop has been suggested to be involved in the learning of new word forms. Which of the following effect of articulatory suppression best supports this claim?

Question 2Select one:

a.
It slows the learning of pairs of Italian words in native Italian speakers
b.
It slows the learning of Italian-Russian word pairs in native Italian speakers
c.
Both a and b
d.
It removes the word length effect
e.
All of the above

Answer 22

The correct answer is: It slows the learning of Italian-Russian word pairs in native Italian speakers

Question 23

What is articulatory suppression?

Answer 23

articulatory suppression

a method used to inhibit subvocal rehearsal of items in a memory test or experiment by requiring the participant to perform a distracting verbal task, such as counting or naming, during the retention period.

Question 24

Is the phonological loop involved in learning new words?

Answer 24

It is claimed that the phonological loop part of the model is a critical mechanism for learning new words. The phonological loop has two linked components: the phonological short-term store, and the sub-vocal rehearsal mechanism. Items in the store decay over time (around 2,000 ms, Baddeley, Thomson & Buchanan, 1975).

Question 25

What is an example of the phonological similarity effect?

Answer 25

For example, the phonological similarity effect refers to the observation that remembering lists of similar-sounding words (e.g., bat, ran, rat, pat, pan) is impaired relative to lists of words with more distinct sounds (e.g., clock, bird, bus, tree, kite), specifically when order must be maintained (Baddeley, 1968

Question 26

What is the phonological similarity effect?

Answer 26

The phonological similarity effect (or acoustic confusion effect) consists of poor serial recall performance for lists composed of similar‐sounding words compared to lists of dissimilar‐sounding items.