Q2 - WM, Ep/Sem, Skill/proced Flashcards
STM/WM, episodic/semantic memory
Atkinson-Shiffrin Memory Model
- input
- sensory memory (visual/auidoty/haptic)
- attention
- STM
- control processes (rehearsal/encoding/retrieval strategies) - LTM
LTM systems
- Declarative/Explicit (Chapter 7)
–Semantic
–Episodic - Non-declarative/Procedural/Implicit/Skill Memory (Chapter 8)
these are learned through repetition, apparently infinite capacity, stored knowledge not currently “in mind”
sensory memory characteristics
- One for each sense
- Very large storage
- Extremely rapid decay (~1s) and rapidly over-written by new incoming sensory information
- Transfers to STM
sensory memories
brief, transient sensations of what you have just perceived
sensory memory capacity approaches (2)
- total recall
- Sperling’s partial report technique
total recall
- Present grid of letters for ~300 ms, too short to transfer to STM
- Have participants write letters recalled
- Typically 3 letters
Problem: store fades before letters can be written
Sperling’s partial report technique
- Have participants only report 1 row, signaled by a tone after presentation
- Again, only 3 letters - but 3 letters from any given row!
Suggests sensory store holds a complete snapshot of the world, but that it fades very rapidly
STM characteristics
- Multimodal (general for senses)
- Small capacity
- Quick decay (<1 min) and over-writing
- Rehearsal – preserves info in STM
- Transfer to/from LTM
STM vs LTM
STM
- active contents of consciousness
- rapid access
- limited capacity
- forgotten quickly
LTM
- not currently in consciousness
- slower access
- unlimited capacity
- forgotten slowly
LTM is constrained by STM/WM
STM capacity - digit span
- Read list of numbers, subjects repeat
- Increase list length until error is made
- Big component of many IQ measures
Miller: 7 plus or minus 2 (but 5 is the mode in normal humans)
capacity and meaning
When lists are meaningful, same length can be held in memory despite much more information being present.
5 to 9 “chunks”
chunks
5 to 9 pieces of information/units of meaning
recoding/chunking
finding meaning in information being stored in STM
- Recode random numbers (14921941) into meaningful years: 1492, 1941
- Depends on having meaningful chunks available
rehearsal
repeating information mentally to maintain attention
- Attention determines duration – stop paying attention, lose the information
WM
workspace for the mind
- It collects sensory input, activates relevant LTMs, and transforms information to suit current needs.
WM component parts (3)
- Phonological loop – inner voice
- Sketchpad – inner eye (imagining)
- Central executive – attention
phonological loop
repeating info mentally - rehearsal
- stores about 2 s of autitory info
Word-length effect
less capacity to memorize lists of multi-syllable words compared to single-syllable words
- Those who speak faster can rehearse longer lists of words
Visual-Spatial Sketchpad
Holds both visual and spatial information for manipulation (the mind’s eye)
- Limited capacity, but capacity is independent from phonological loop (filling one doesn’t impact the other)
central executive
The working part of your mind; monitors and manipulates working memory buffers - manipulation of remembered information.
- Exerts cognitive control over behavior; providing complex organization in response to environmental demands
- The most important component of working memory, but also the least understood
Central Executive and Cognitive Control tasks
- self-ordered memory task - choose an item not yet selected
- Hanoi tower
- Wisconsin Card Sorting Test - learn a rule governing the sorting of cards (e.g., by color).
- After they catch on, however, the rule is changed (e.g., by shape), requiring an updating of memory and behavior - stroop test
dysexecutive syndrome
decrease in working memory and executive function
- Decreased digit span
- Poor memory updating (self-ordered memory task)
- Poor planning (Hanoi tower)
- Poor task switching, with perseverance (can’t switch to new rule in card sorting task)
- Poor overall IQ
prefrontal cortex areas of WM
- Dorsal PFC:
Manipulation (central executive) - Ventral PFC
Simple Maintenance
- left: phonological loop
- right: visuospatial sketchpad - Other cortical areas
Rehearsal
Dorsolateral PFC
- Impaired with a delayed self-ordered visual recognition task requiring memory manipulation (Which of these have I not selected previously?)
- No impairment, however, with a delayed recognition task requiring only memory maintenance (Which of these have I seen before?)
damage Ventrolateral PFC - left
impairs auditory rehearsal
damage Ventrolateral PFC - right
impairs visual memory rehearsal
PFC job
- Storage: holds temporary memories in place (this is the traditional view)
- Coordinates: maintains activity in posterior portions of the cortex to represent temporary memories (this is a newer theory)
Anterograde Amnesia
inability to form new LTM
still intact:
- most memories before surgery
- new things as long as attending to new info
HM memory systems
working memory (new info) and LTM (info before surgery) remain intact but CONSOLIDATION process is impaired
- can’t transfer info from WM to LTM
WM types (2)
1. Declarative
2. Non declarative
- declarative LTM: explicit
- can relate back to others (first concert, current president) - nondeclarative LTM: implicit
- hard to teach others (walk, ride a bike)
declarative types (2)
- episodic: specific autobiographical events (first concert)
- semantic: facts and general knowledge (Yanks WS titles)
- both episodic and semantic memories depend on e/o
memory processes (3)
- storage: initial storage of info
- encoding: maintaining stored info
- retrieval: reactivating the memory for further processing
encoding
prior knowledge helps
the more deeply info is processed the better it is encoded
- imaged words are better remembered than pronounced words
retrieval and encoding connection
Retrieval works best when conditions are similar to encoding conditions
- SCUBA test
SCUBA test
- participants learned 2 list of 40 words on land or underwater
- tested in same or diff context
results: same context group performed better
retrieval cues
more cues = makes memory recall easier
memory failure problems (4)
- forgetting
- interference
- misattribution
- false memory
forgetting
substantial forgetting even w perfectly encoded material
- long- lasting memories tend to be permanent
- directed forgetting can increase forgetting
interference
Similar/overlapping information can interfere with memory, producing storage and retrieval errors
- proactive
- retroactive
proactive interference
OLD info interferes w/ new info
- memories of an old party interfere w memories of the new party
retroactive interference
NEW info interferes w/ old info
- hard to remember old test info after learning new test info
misattribution errors
incorrectly linking memories to their source
- memory misattribution
- source amnesia
- crytomnesia
Memory misattribution
information is correctly remembered but mistakenly associated with an incorrect source
ex. Joe told me the party was today (when it was actually Jane)
Source Amnesia
when information is correctly remembered, but the source is not remembered at all
ex. I know the party is today, but I have no idea how I know that
Cryptomnesia
mistakenly remembering someone else’s ideas as one’s own
ex. It was my idea to have the party (when it was actually Jane’s)
false memories
memories can be modified and manipulated after encoding
- Wade et al. photoshopped kids into photos of events they had never really participated in.
After viewing the photos, kids claimed the event had really happened and “remembered” details not contained in the photos.
consolidation
strengthening the stability of stored information
- each use of a memory makes it fragile again, requiring reconsolidation to once again keep it permanently
sensory cortex
first cortical processing center for a sense
associative cortex
connecting the primary cortices
Episodic
specific autobiographical events
Ex first concert
Semantic
facts and general knowledge (Yanks WS titles)
- both episodic and semantic memories depend on e/o
Declarative
explicit
- can relate back to others
Ex current president
Non-declarative
Implicit
Hard to relate back to others
Ex how to walk, ride a bike
