short term/working memory Flashcards
Who is ‘S’ and why is their case significant
- could perfectly recall all types of information in any order
- Had no capacity or duration limits
- could produce things after briefly seeing them but did not know why
- cons: had difficultly remembering faces bc they look diff in diff lighting/angles, hard time generalizing, caught up in details
- how: sounds were visual images (connect sounds), remember details by creating images
- extreme case of synesthesia
synesthesia
- stimulation in one sense leads to impression in another (combo of 2 sense that dont go together)
- trait not a disorder
define memory
- info that persists in your brain for some amount of time
- memories play diff roles in turning sensory signals into meaning (modal mode of memory)
og Modal model of memory
- variation of info processing theory
- input > sensory memory(snapshots/impressions) > short term memory (reversal is how it is maintained, if not output) > long term memory
- seen as wrong, as memory is distributed, brain reconstructs events
what two areas are most studies in sensory memory
echoic: sounds (1-2 seconds, mental replay of sounds=recency effect)
iconic: vision (capacity at least 9 items, but can be bigger, ~1 sec)
updated modal model of memory
- sensory memory > (attention) > working (ST) memory > (rehearsal) > LTM
Sperling task
- presented ppl with set of letters and numbers briefly
- two ways: whole report or partial report (partial report was better recalled even though cues were given after figures were removed)
if you process info in iconic memory it enters _____ memory
short term/working
t or f: only the last peice of info presented gets a bump in cognition
f: first and last
_____ memory is the info that you are currently thinking abt
short term (input and storage of info, rehearsal of info)
STM capacity and duration
capacity: 7 +/- 2 words/numbers (Miller), or what can be said in 2 secs
duration: hard to say approx 10 secs eliminates the recency effect
recency effect
replay of sounds, the last thing you hear
Word length effect
- longer words take longer (fewer held in STM)
- takes up more space, harder to recall
t or f: info in STM is all stored in visual forms
f, also in verbal forms (hard to remember if they sound the same)
- ppl translate visual into auditory when reading
t or f: we can remember things without being able to put them into words
true
how to increase STM capacity
- chunking (ground related items)
What was the brown peterson task (make ppl count backwards by 3s after given a list of letters/numbers) aiming to discover?
- if info can be retained w out rehearsal
- claimed forgetting came from decay (no rehearsal)
interference (memory)
- similar items interfere with each other (ex car brands)
- proactive interference: old in the way of new
- retroactive interference: new in the way of old
without rehearsal STM duration is _______
- 20 seconds
- lost due to decay/interference
short term vs working memory
- STM: ‘storage unit’, easily assessable, most recently processed, limited, imput/storage
- Working: MANIPULATION of info and storage
components of working memory
- Visuospatial sketch pad: rehearsal/articulatory processes
- Central executive: control/decision precess, ‘manager’
- Phonological loop: imagery, visual/spacial process
- Episodic buffer: activates binding in WM and LTM
WM central executive
- manager
- set goals/priorities (info as you try to accomplish task)
- allocates resources when needed to subareas
- switches between tasks when multi are going on @ once
- frontal lobe (prefrontal) damage=slow to switch between tasks/dont switch, shown in children (stuck on first rule they heard)
WM phonological loop
- verbal material (sub-verbally)
- contains: phonological store (representation/passive retention, info you hold onto) and articulatory loop (active rehearsal)
articulatory supression
- difficult to retain words when articulating something else (repeating words when trying to remember numbers)
phonological similarity
- hard to remember words that sound similar/rhyme
- easier to mix up
word length effect
- phonological loop has a max capacity, long words take up more space
WM Visuospatial sketchpad
- manipulate visual and spacial info (imagery/where it is in space)
- mental rotation
- mental rotation (hold onto object and compare it to a diff object)
- further rotation, longer response
- manipulates info
WM episodic buffer
- where info combines
- back up for central executive
- diff modalities bound together
- can hold visual and phono info and combine with LTM info
- links new info to be stored
- visual rep w/out articulatory interference
- binding problem: any event=all senses binded as one
working memory span
- ability to remember one set of things while processing others
- how much detailed info you can hold
t or f: reading sentences helps with rehearsal of info
false, prevents rehearsal
t or f: process of verbal and visual stimuli should not interfere w eachother and are processed by dif systems
true
t or f: hard tasks speed up processing by borrowing resources from central executive
false, they are slowed down and also borrow resources, but cannot boost both phono and visual
what combo of stimuli results in low performance of processing:
a) visual-visual
b) verbal-verbal
c) verbal-visual
c)
evidence of working memory begins at age _____ and peaks at _______. It then declines around _____
3, adolescence, past 60/70 y/o
______ peaks and plateaus whereas _____ peaks and slowly declines
memory, attention
attention memory
can you improve WM
- no
- brain games make u better at games not smarter
- good things to boost cognition: new lang, new instrument, read music
