Short Term Memory Flashcards
Sensory memory
The brief “buffer” that holds information for seconds, or fractions of seconds
Echoic memory
Brief sensory memory for auditory stimuli; lasts a few seconds
Iconic memory
Brief sensory memory for visual stimuli; lasts for fractions of a second
What does it mean when we say sensory memory is precategorical?
It represents the physical properties but not
the meaning of the stimuli
How can we determine the meaning of stimuli in our sensory memory?
In order to determine the meaning, you need to attend to the information and put it in STM
Partial report procedure
Participants only reported the letters from one row
Short term memory
- Memory mechanism that keeps a limited amount of information active for seconds (~1-20 seconds)
- Often thought to contain our current thoughts — our conscious experience
Information that can be contained in STM
- Sensory information that was attended to
- Information retrieved from long-term memory
- Self-generated information that is the result of reasoning, etc. (e.g. doing a math problem in your head)
Why do digit span and change detection tasks result in such different estimates of STM capacity?
STM capacity may reflect the number of chunk that people can hold in mind.
Chunking
- Multiple items can be combined into meaningful chunks
- A chunk could be a letter, a word, maybe even a sentence
Proactive interference
- When previously learned information interferes with your ability to learn new information
- People might “forget” letters so quickly because
they’ve seen each letter so many times during the
experiment
Retroactive interference
The number of intervening items
Decay
Time since number presented
Working memory
- Working memory is an active process - it does not just maintain information, it also can manipulate information
- Working memory has separate stores for verbal and visual information
- Working memory includes a Central Executive which allocates resources to the different stores
Phonological loop
Responsible for verbal STM; phonological store holds information for ~ 2s; articulatory control system is responsible for rehearsal
Visuospatial sketchpad
Responsible for visual/spatial information; has analogical, visual representations
Central executive
Attentional control system (“traffic cop”); modality free (doesn’t care if it’s phonological or visual in nature) and has a limited capacity
Episodic buffer
Allows LTM to interact with working memory
Persistence of vision
The continued perception of light for a fraction of a second after the original light stimulus has been extinguished. Perceiving a trail of light from a moving sparkler is caused by the persistence of vision.
Perseveration
Difficulty in switching from one behavior to another, which can hinder a person’s ability to solve problems that require flexible thinking. Perseveration is observed in cases in which the prefrontal cortex has been damaged.
Activity-silent working memory
Short-term changes in neural network connectivity (a number of connections between neurons are strengthened) that has been hypothesized as a mechanism for holding information in working memory.
