Short Term Memory Flashcards
What are early views on memory?
Memory has been of interest since antiquity
-Plato proposed that memory is like a tablet of wax.
-for centuries, memory was seen as a passive store
-However, experimental research in the last century has identified several functions:
Encoding,storage, retrieval and processing of information.
What neuropsychology evidence suggests memory is made of two components?
Scoville & Milner 1957
- HM a patient suffering from epilepsy underwent surgery.
- ablation of sorts of his right and left temporal load occurred (including two thirds of hippocampus and amygdala)
results :
After surgery he was unable to store new memories into long term memory. But could perform tasks that required short term memory. E.G holding a convo.
-He had an intact short term memory but damaged long term memory.
What neurobiological evidence is there for two memory systems?
Kandle 2001
Long term memory and short term memory use different biological mechanisms
Outline Murdock experiment (1962)
- used a free recall task
- tested hypothesis that there are two different memory systems
- participants had to remember lists of 10,15,20,30 and 40 words
- presentation time for each item was 1s or 2s
- they were asked to immediately recall
He found a serial curve, with primacy and regency effects.
Outline postman and Phillips research
Tested hypothesis of two memory systems
-free recall paradigm with lists of 10,20 and 30 words
- two main conditions :
1. No retention interval
2. recall after a delay of 15 or 30 seconds, filled in with a counting task
-The presence of a retention interval led to the elimination of the recency effect.
What is the primacy effect?
The probability of getting words correct from a free recall task correct as they are placed first serially on the list
What is the recency effect?
The probability of getting a word correct on a free recall task as they are placed serially last on a list but only if there is not interval between the encoding of the list.
Outline the procedure of Waugh and Normas research (1965)
Participants were shown a list of digits
- they were given a probe: one of the digits in the list
- their task was to retrieve the digit following the probe:
- Particpants have to focus on one digit rather than the entire lists, this technique suppresses rehearsal.
Outline the results of Waugh and Normans experiment
Weak memory for last items
-suppressing rehearsal eliminates recency effect
What has research into the MSM found about memory?
- there is a component in memory that temporarily stores information for a short while
- if the information is not rehearsed, then it is lost.
- if there are interferences (counting backwards), then it is lost
Summarise atkinsons and shrifins model of memory
-It is a cognitive architecture which is proposed, with three major stages:
- Input is received
- the input turn generates cognitive processing
- some behaviour is produced- the output of the system
- Memory stores are places where information is maintained and processed
- Control processes regulate and control the information flow between the memory components
What is architecture with regards to memory?
the way in which the memory system is organised
What is processes with regards to memory?
The activities occurring within the memory system.
Outline Atkinsons and Shriffins. Model
- stimuli of input is received by the sensory register
- it is then transferred into the Short term memory. There is a rehearsal buffer.
- if the information in the stm is rehearsed enough it will be transferred to the LTM and stored there.
Describe the sensory register in the atkinsons and shriffins model
- it will temporarily store information of sensations until the information is forwarded to the short term store.
- the information is modality specific which is held for a few hundred milliseconds
- the information is not accessible to consciousness
- the memory capacity of the sensory register is large
Describe the long term store in the Atkinson and Shrifins model
- holds all the information that one has acquire through learning
- information is stored permanently
- capacity is assumed to be infinite
- Insensitive to interferences
Describe the short term memory store in the Atkinson and shriffins model
- Holds and processes information in all modalities
- organises information to produce behaviour
- information is sensitive to interferences
- forgetting is rapid in absence of rehearsal
- items must be rehearsed constantly to avoid forgetting
- Short term memory is also called:
- primary memory
- immediate memory
- working memory
-conscious experience occurs at this store
What do control processes do in the Atkinson and shriffins model?
Control the input of the short term store
- filter the amount and quality of the information coming from the sensory registers (attention or selective attention)
- Control how much information and which information is retrieved from the long-term store
They select what type of cognitive operations are applied to the information held in the short-term store.
What are incorrect assumptions about atkinsons and shriffins model for long term memory?
items are encoded in long term memory as a result of their stay in the short term store:
- Items can be processed frequently in short term memory without it being store in long term memory
- what matters is not the amount of rehearsing but the type of rehearsing
What are incorrect assumptions about the short term memory in Atkinson and shriffins model?
Short term store is considered to process unitary information:
- Assumes that there are no differences in the type of information used
- but short term memory deals with at least two types of information (verbal information and visual-spatial information)
Short term store can be considered as a unit:
- resources engaged by one process are not available for another process (this is not the case)
- baddley and hitch dual task technique
Outline how forgett
Decay theory of forgetting:
-Forgetting is due to decay (the fading of memory traces)
Describe the interference theory of forgetting
Forgetting is due to interferences caused by neural events
- two types:
- Proactive interference: influence of previously learnt items on the learning of new material
-Retroactive interference: The influence for new items on previously learnt items
The more similar new items are to items in memory in particular semantic information forgetting is more likely.
What did Baddeley and Hitch question about the short term store and what did they develop?
The concept of the short term store being one component As proposed by Atkinson and Shriffin
-the working memory model
What components make up the working memory model?
- Central executive
- phonological loop
- visual-spatial sketch pad
- episodic buffer
