STM & Working Memory

Question 1

STM

Answer 1

a temporary store in which we integrate current sensory experience with long term memory to achieve current goals

Question 2

Capacity of STM

Answer 2

limited

Question 3

Duration of STM

Answer 3

15-30 seconds

Question 4

How is verbal STM capacity assessed?

Answer 4

using digit-span task

Question 5

Explain the digit-span task

Answer 5

• immediate serial recall of verbally presented digits in the order they were presented
• systematically increase length of sequence to determine the “span”
• a participant’s span is reached when they fail on 2 trials at a given series length

Question 6

Average span

Answer 6

7 +/- 2

Question 7

How was duration of STM assessed?

Answer 7

The Brown Peterson task

Question 8

Explain the Brown-Peterson task

Answer 8

• remember 3 consonants
• memory probed (tested) at 3 second retention intervals
• to prevent rehearsal, participants were required to count backwards in 3’s until given a signal to stop

Question 9

What are serial position effects?

Answer 9

the psychological tendency to remember the first and last items in a list better than those in the middle

Question 10

Explain serial position effects

Answer 10

• immediate free recall of lists of numbers of words is affected by position of items in list
  PRIMACY EFFECT (more rehearsal)
  RECENCY EFFECT (still in STM)

Question 11

How is the recency effect reduced?

Answer 11

by introducing a filled retention interval

Question 12

How is the primacy effect eliminated?

Answer 12

introducing a concurrent task (e.g. repetition of a word)

Question 13

Craik & Tulving (1975) - Levels of Processing

Answer 13

test the idea that LTM for words is influenced by the “depth” of the encoding process used in STM

Question 14

What is the central executive?

Answer 14

responsible for controlled processing in working memory - directs attention to & retrieves info from PL & VSS for integration in the episodic buffer

Question 15

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 15

a mental workspace for manipulating auditory & verbal info

Question 16

What is the digit-span backwards?

Answer 16

a test of phonological / verbal working memory because you must actively manipulate info in memory rather than just maintain the sequence

Question 17

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 17

a temporary store for representations of visual & spatial info such as faces, objects, written words & cognitive maps
- allows you to manipulate visually & spatially represented info
- e.g. mental rotation of objects

Question 18

What are executive processes?

Answer 18

• used in planning & coordinating behaviour (e.g. goal orientation)
• governed by circuitry in pre-frontal cortex, especially dorsal prefrontal cortex & anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

Question 19

Which area of the brain governs the phonological loop?

Answer 19

left-hemisphere fronto-temporal lobe network

Question 20

Which area of the brain governs the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 20

right occipital-parietal network

Question 21

Which area of the brain governs the episodic buffer?

Answer 21

the parietal cortex