Short-Term Memory and Working Memory

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present. Active when experience has an impact on how we think or behave now or in future.

Question 2

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Modal Model of Memory

Answer 2

explains sensory, short term, and long term memory.

Question 3

Sensory memory

Answer 3

initial stage that holds all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second. Retention for a brief period of effects of sensory stimulation.

Question 4

persistence of vision

Answer 4

retention of perception of light – trail of light or frames in a film

Question 5

whole report method

Answer 5

using in Sperling’s study, participants asked to report as many as could be seen when shown an array of letters flashed on a screen. 4.5 out of 12 letters remembered.

Question 6

partial report method

Answer 6

participants heard tone that told them which rows of letters to report, about 3.3 out of 4 letters remembered.

Question 7

delayed partial report method

Answer 7

presentation of tone delayed for a fraction of a second after the letters were extinguished, performance decreased.

Question 8

iconic memory

Answer 8

brief sensory memory of the things that we see, responsible for persistence of vision. 200-500 ms.

Question 9

echoic memory

Answer 9

brief sensory memory of the things that we hear, responsible for persistence of sound. 2-4 seconds.

Question 10

short term memory

Answer 10

holds five to seven items for about 15-20 seconds. Stores small amounts of information for a brief duration, includes both new information received from sensory stores and information recalled from LTM.

Question 11

How duration of STM was measured

Answer 11

read three letters and then 3-digit number, after a set time participants recalled 3 letters. After 3 seconds, participants performed at 80%, after 18 seconds participants performed at 10%. Reduction in performance explained by decay, the vanishing of memory trace due to passage of time and exposure to competing stimuli.

Question 12

digit span

Answer 12

used to see capacity of STM, how many digits a person can remember – usually 5-8 items.

Question 13

chunking

Answer 13

used to see capacity of STM, small units can be combined into larger meaningful units; a chunk is a collection of elements strongly associated with one another but weakly associated with elements in other chunks.

Question 14

Ericsson experiment (1980)

Answer 14

trained college student with average memory ability to use chunking, after 230 one-hour sessions the student could remember up to 79 digits. Showed chunking items into meaningful units is helpful.

Question 15

Chase and Simon experiment (1973)

Answer 15

memory for chess pieces on a board, chess masters and beginners, pieces positioned for a real chess game or randomly positioned. Masters does better when pieces in actual position but does as bad as beginner when randomly placed because they can’t chunk.

Question 16

Long term memory

Answer 16

can hold a large amount of information for years or even decades.

Question 17

control processes

Answer 17

active processes that can be controlled by the person; rehearsal, strategies to make stimuli memorable, strategies of attention to help focus on stimuli.

Question 18

Episodic buffer

Answer 18

backup store that communicates with LTM and WM components, holds information longer and has greater capacity than phonological loop or visuospatial sketch pad.

Question 19

central executive

Answer 19

acts as the attention controller, focus, divide, switch attention, controls suppression of irrelevant information.

Question 20

Working memory

Answer 20

limited-capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning. Used to process different types of information at the same time.

Question 21

prefrontal cortex

Answer 21

responsible for processing incoming visual and auditory information – monkeys without prefrontal cortex have difficulty holding info in working memory.

Question 22

Funashi experiment (1989)

Answer 22

single cell recordings from monkey’s prefrontal cortex during a delayed-response task, Monkey could remember location of square stimuli when it was removed. Neurons responded when stimulus was flashed in a particular location and during delay. Information remains available via these neurons for as long as they continue firing.

Question 23

Stokes experiment

Answer 23

information is stored in STM changes in neural networks.

Question 24

activity state

Answer 24

information to be remembered causes neurons to fire.

Question 25

synaptic state

Answer 25

neuron firing stops, but connections between neurons are strengthened.

Question 26

Vogel experiment

Answer 26

determined participants’ WM – high-capacity WM and low-capacity WM, shown either simple or complex stimuli and measured ERP responses. The high-capacity group were more efficient at ignoring distractions.

Question 27

Visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 27

creation of visual images in the mind in the absence of a physical visual stimulus

Question 28

Shepard and Metzler experiment

Answer 28

mental rotation task, task that called for greater rotations took longer.

Question 29

Brooks experiment

Answer 29

pointing was easier than speaking, memorizing a sentence involved phonological loop, pointing response involved visuospatial sketchpad, verbal response involved phonological loop, conducting two verbal tasks overloaded the phonological loop. Results show that if the task and the response draw on the same working memory component, performance is worse than if the task and response are distributed between WM components.

Question 30

phonological similarity effect

Answer 30

letters or words that sound similar are confused

Question 31

word length effect

Answer 31

memory for lists of words is better for short words than for long words.

Question 32

articulatory suppression

Answer 32

speaking prevents one from rehearsing items to be remembered, reducing memory span, eliminates word length effect, reduces similarity effect for reading words.

Question 33

Difference between Modal Model’s STM and WMS

Answer 33

STM holds information for a brief period. Working memory is concerned with the storage, processing, and manipulation of information, and is active during complex cognition.

Question 34

Sensory memory (capacity and duraction)

Answer 34

Holds all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second. Retention for a brief period of effects of sensory stimulation.

Question 35

Short term memory (capacity and duration)

Answer 35

Holds five to seven items for about 15-20 seconds. Stores small amounts of information for a brief duration, includes both new information received from sensory stores and information recalled from LTM.