Short-Term Memory def

Question 1

Short-Term Memory def

Answer 1

The part of memory that holds information for up to 30 seconds

• Where current and recently attended information is held
• Sometimes loosely equated with attention and consciousness

Question 2

Working Memory

Answer 2

• Similar to short-term memory

- Contains components for actively manipulating information

Question 3

Chunk

Answer 3

the formation of individual units of info into larger units. Often used to overcome STM limitations

Question 4

Recoding

Answer 4

Mentally transforming a stimulus into another code or format

Grouping items into larger chunks

Question 5

Proactive Interference (PI)

Retroactive Interference (RI)

Decay

Answer 5

Proactive Interference (PI) - Older material interferes forward in time with your recollection of the current item.

Retroactive Interference (RI) - Newer material interferes backward in time with your recollection of older items.

Decay - Loss of information across time, presumably caused by fading

Question 6

Decay

Answer 6

• When memory breaks up and goes away

- E.g. Brown-Peterson Task (1958)
o Measuring the duration of STM
• Present 3 letters -> counting a number backwards by three -> recall the 3 letters
• After 3 sec of count: 80% correct
• After 18 sec of counting: 10% correct

Question 7

Interference

Answer 7

• Brown-Peterson revisited (Keppel and Underwood, 1962)
  o Keppel and Underwood argued that it is not decay but instead it is ‘interference’
  • Interference due to the stimuli interfering with stimuli
  • As you start to add trial, it starts to get harder
  • Shows that there is an interference effect that Brown-Peterson don’t figure out

Question 8

Proactive interference

Answer 8

• Proactive interference is the forgetting of new information as a result of information already stored in memory
• Occurs when information learned previously interferes with learning new information
  e. g. Your native language may make it more difficult to learn and remember a new foreign language

Question 9

Release from proactive interference (Wickens, 1972)

Answer 9

Results

• the proactive interference is to some extent category-specific
• similar categories are mentally closer than are dissimilar ones

Question 10

serial position effect

Answer 10

a very important concept in memory. The curve describes how well items on a list are remembered, in particular how well the items are remembered when the items are presented in a sequence. Some items are remembered well and some items are poorly.

Question 11

primacy effect

Answer 11

the improvement in retention of info learned at the beginning of a task.

Question 12

recency effect

Answer 12

the improvement in retention of info learned at the end of a task.

Question 13

Serial recall task

Answer 13

the task used to examine the curve. Participants are presented with a series of items then have to recall them in any order they want. Series means the items are being presented one by one.

Question 14

Phonological Loop

Answer 14

Contains 2 components: the phonological store (inner ear) and the articulatory control system (inner voice).

The phonological store holds sound representations (verbal and acoustic information) in a sound-based form for 1.5 - 2 seconds. These sounds will fade unless they are used by the articulatory control system (ACS). The information can originate from echoic memory or long-term storage.

The ACS holds sounds that we want to keep or are preparing to speak, which lasts up to 2 seconds.

The phonological loop however can hold the sounds up to 2 seconds unless the information is rehearsed.

Question 15

Central Executive

Answer 15

This component is the most important and complex element. The tasks that are carried out are:

☼ Coordinating and integrating information from the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad. However, this information are not stored or processed by the central executive.

☼ Directing the shift/movement of information from short-term and long-term storage, vice-versa

☼ Directing your attention

☼ Filtering what information is essential and non-essential

☼ Selecting, deleting and reorganizing information from other sub-systems

☼ The “boss” of the working memory

Question 16

Episodic Buffer

Answer 16

This component is controlled by the central executive and helps in retrieving information from long-term memory, and associates it with the other 2 components (PL & VSS)

Other functions:
☼ This component can also hold information in any form, being modality free, which allows auditory information to combine with visual/spatial information.

☼ Pulls/retrieves information from long-term memory, phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad together to create scenes/episodes

☼ Similar to a “workspace” in which the scenes/episodes are processed, edited and reordered

The capacity is 4 information bits

Question 17

Visuospatial Sketchpad (Visual Working Memory)

Answer 17

This is a temporary storage for visual and spatial information.

Visual information is anything that you see or visualize

Spatial information is the location of the objects in space/environment