Task 1 working memory Flashcards
Short term memory
where information can be maintained as long it is actively attended to (e.g. rehearsal)
Working memory
the active and temporary representation of information that is maintained for the short term in a person’s mind to help him/her think and allow her to decide what to do next
o Working memory involves the temporary retention of information just experienced or just retrieved from long-term memory
o Can be influenced by phonological and articulatory factors, performance gets worse when phonological similar (confusion) (word length→ the time you need to pronounce it)
Cognitive control
is the manipulation of the working memory for planning, task switching, attention, stimulus selection and the inhibition of inappropriate reflexive behaviours
Supervisory attentional system
modifies behaviour when automatic responses are inappropriate, changes the periodisation of cues for attention
Primacy effect
we are more successful remembering the first things on the list
Recency effect
we are more successful remembering the last things on the list
Prefrontal cortex
Due to intense connections to more posterior parts of the brain the prefrontal cortex is thought to be important for executive functions and working memory which is done by the combination of internal and external stimuli, short term memory is often impaired to in case of brain damage to the frontal lobes
o the most abstract plans (make sandwich, move all disks to right peg) depend on the most anterior (front) part of the frontal lobes. if the goals and plans to be maintained in working memory are specific and concrete (such as spreading peanut butter on the sandwich), they are likely to be localized in the more posterior regions of the frontal lobes
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Manipulation important brain region supporting the maintenance of items in working memory, seems that neurons here are encoding a combination of sensory and movement information, support higher-order cognitive-control functions such as monitoring and manipulation of stored information
Primary and secondary sensory and motor regions
Activity has been seen these regions are connected to the DLPFC, which is able to sustain activity despite distractions
Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
Maintenance supports the active controlled encoding and retrieval of information, interactions with posterior cortical regions might explain phonological rehearsal loop, more important for remembering something (encoding of new information)
o Activated by simple rehearsal, especially internal rehearsal
Frontal lobe
associated with higher intellectual abilities, as wells as organisation, foresight and inhibition of impulses
o dysexecutive syndrome: A disrupted ability to think and plan
Lesion at Posterioir regions of frontal cortex
disrupt performance in domain specific motor learning tasks but not in domain-general monitoring tasks
Lesion at middle part of DLPFC
impair performance in general monitoring tasks but not in domain-specific tasks
Schizophrenia
- Problems with memories and executive control
- Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is dysfunctional in schizophrenia but not in ventral regions, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex areas are often more activated than in normal people possibly due to compensation of the dysfunctionality of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
- Impairment of Prefrontal cortex might be due to deficiencies in cortical dopamine processing (less dopamine leads to more receptors→ dopamine is important for maintaining information)
ADHD
- involves dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex and its cortical and subcortical connections, including connections to the cerebellum and the basal ganglia
- they have a smaller right prefrontal cortex, the region associated with spatial attention and working memory
- One view is that people with adhd have “noisy” basal ganglia that sometimes send inappropriate signals to the prefrontal cortex, resulting in distractible behaviour, while at other times the basal ganglia do not signal the prefrontal cortex when appropriate, resulting in perseveration or inattention
Depression
- Impaired in removing negative emotions from memory
- Dopamine shortage
- Less efficient phonological loop and executive control
Limits of short-term memory
o Limited capacity (about 5-9 concepts which are linked to long-term, lower is more common) o Attention (when you get distracted the information are lost)
Improving short-term memory
o Recoding: Associate e.g. numbers to meaningful dates in history
Improving working memory
o Eat right, fresh vegetables, avoid sugar and grain carbohydrates
o Exercise, strengthening their interconnections and protecting them from damage
o Stop multitasking
o Sleep
Delayed nonmatch-to-sample task (DNMS)
A test of visual memory in which a subject must indicate which of two novel objects is not the same as one that was recently seen.
2 back test
a participant is read a seemingly random list of items, usually numbers. a certain item—let’s say the number 7— is designated as the “target.” Whenever the target number 7 is read, the participant is to respond with the number that was read two numbers previously (hence the name 2-back). sound tough? Try it. if the numbers read aloud are 4 8 3 7 8 2 5 6 7 8 0 2 4 6 7 3 9 . . . , what would the correct responses be? (answer: “8” to the first 7, “5” to the second 7, and “4” to the third 7.)
Self ordered memory task
On trial 1 a participant is shown the first card and is asked to choose any of the six items on it. The participant in Figure 9.6 has chosen the rose. This card is then flipped over. next, on trial 2, the participant is shown the second card (with the same six items in a different order) and is asked to choose any of the five items not yet selected. in Figure 9.6, the participant has chosen the goat. This second card is then flipped over. Then the participant is shown the third card and must pick any of the four remaining items that were not chosen on the previous two cards, that is, any image except the rose or the goat. This self-ordered task continues until the participant has pointed to all six different items without repeating any
o Controlled updating of short-term memory buffers
Tower of hanoi
Setting goals an planning
Winsconsin Card sorting test
people are shown cards with graphics that differ in three characteristics, or dimensions: colour, shape, and number. One sample card might have three red circles, while another card might have one yellow triangle. On each trial they are told to guess which of four piles a particular card goes on, and then they are informed if their choice is correct or not.
o This task taps into people’s working memory and executive control because it requires not only learning a rule and keeping it in mind while they sort, but also learning to change the rule and keep track of the new one without confusing it with the old
