STM & WM Flashcards
What are the 3 things memory researchers are concerned about?
Type of things memory can hold (memory code)
Limiting factors of memory (capacity and duration)
Processes that allow info to enter and exit memory
What evidence shows that memory doesn’t act as a unitary system?
We can remember input for diff amounts of time
Type of stimulus influence duration of memory
Double-dissociation between long-term and short-term memory
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Initial processing of info
Retention of encoded info
Brain’s ability to access stores info for some cognitive purposes
Atkinson and Shiffrin
Multi-store (modal) model of memory
3 distinct memory stores:
Sensory (Unattended info lost through attention)
- ~1 sec
Short-term (Unrehearsed info is lost through encoding)
- 15-30 secs
Long-term (Some info may be lost over time)
Sensory store investigation (Sperling)
Looked at how much we can encode during a single brief instance
Whole report procedure done (ppl asked to remember as many letters as they can
- Only remembered 3-4 items
When partial report done (report one row only)
- Only 3 items remembered
Capacity and duration of iconic memory
(Sensory store investigation)
3-4 visual items
~15 ms
Duration of echoic (sound) and tactile (touch) sensory memory
4-5 seconds
Persistence of vision
Retention of an image of an object or event for a brief period after it’s no longer present
Rehearsal
Keeps info in STM and helps pass it on to LTM
George Miller
Capacity of STM
Magical Number 7+/- 2
We remember in STM thru meaningful groups if info (chunk)
Naveh-Benjamin and Ayres
Coding and storage
Tested how much of digit span you can remember between languages
As # of syllables for digit increases (bcuz of language), digit span items remembered decreases
- The more you can say in a second, the more you can remember
True or false?
STM span is smaller for rhyming lists
True
STM stored acoustically (verbally)
- Similar sounding words make it harder to differentiate
Capacity of visual STM
3-4 visual items
Maintenance rehearsal
Mental repetition of info in STM which reactivates the initial encoding
Baddeley’s Working Memory model
Visuo-spatial sketch pad
Central executive
Phonological loop
Working memory allows us to temporarily store and manipulate info
- Capacity differs between people
- No exact duration bcuz WM is actively manipulating material
Temporary store for visual info
Processing component that takes input from the visual and verbal store
Temporary store for verbal info
Articulatory rehearsal process
Articulatory suppression
(Baddeley’s working memory model)
Process allowing info to be processed from visual to verbal code
Saying a verbal utterance out loud occupies the articulatory rehearsal process
- Disrupts recall
- Reduces/eliminates phonological similarity effect and word length effect
Result of Vogel’s study on working memory
Ppl w/ high WM capacity are able to ignore irrelevant input
- Allows them to have more resources available
Operation span task
- What do they correlate with?
- What are researchers who use this interested in?
Correlated w/ academic performance
Interested in individual diffs in task performance
Why doesn’t Baddeley’s working memory model address the binding problem?
Not sure how chunking increases WM capacity independently from attention
Everyday WM performance suggests capacity is much higher than lab findings (4 +/-1)
Episodic buffer
(Revised Baddeley’s working memory model)
Integrates info from diff modalities into a complete memory
- Binds info from WM components and LTM
- Limited capacity buffer controlled by central executive
Proactive interference
Retroactive interference
Info encoded earlier interferes with something you learn in the future
Info encoded later interferes with something you learned in the last
Working memory is correlated with what?
(Conway)
General intelligence
Cowan’s working memory model
Domain general
Assumes parallel activation
- WM is just a memory we’re attending
Recurrent neural networks (RNNs)
Applied to sequential data that contain recurrent nodes that loop output back into themselves as inputs
- Allows them to process past and current inputs simultaneously
- Useful for processing present input with previous input
