The working memory Flashcards
What are the 4 components of the working memory?
the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer and central executive
What is the function of the phonological loop?
holds speech-based information
What were the two components of the phonological loop believed to be?
- Articulatory control system - time limited verbal rehearsal system ‘inner voice’
- Phonological store - speech based storage system with a rapid decay ‘inner ear’
What is the phonological similarity effect?
Recall for a set of similar words is 25% worse than that of a set of dissimilar words
What is the word-length effect?
Articulatory duration of a word has a larger impact on recall than the phonological complexity (indicates rehearsal)
What did Baddeley (1975) find?
Using dual interference task found that taks using the same components of the phonological loop had more interference
What is the current view of the components of the phonological loop?
Passive phonological store - direct access activated by speech perception
Articulatory process - indirect access through subvocal articulation
What is the visuospatial sketchpad?
Temporary spatial and visual information storage system used for the manipulation of visual patterns and movement
What are the 2 components of the visuospatial sketchpad?
- Visual cache - stores info about form and colour
- Inner scribe - stores spatial and movement information, performs rehearsal of the visual cache and transfers information from the visual cache to the central executive
What did Klauer & Zhao find?
- Spatial tasks show more interference with movement discrimination
- Visual tasks showed more interference with colour discrimination
What brain areas are associated with the visual cache and and the inner scribe?
visual cache - ventral prefrontal cortex
inner scribe - dorsal prefrontal cortex
What 2 pieces of evidence suggest that the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop are independent?
- Dual task experiments by Logie et al 1990
- Stroke victim PV had impaired verbal short term memory however visual short term memory was intact
What is the central executive?
Term for the processes that organise and coordinate the functioning of the cognitive system to fulfil current goals, employed during complex activities and problem solving
What area of the brain is associated with the central executive?
prefrontal cortex
disruption in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects performance
What is Miyake’s model for the central executive?
3 processes: - Inhibition - Shifting - Updating (based on healthy individuals)
Define inhibition
ability to halt automatic, dominant or prepotent responses when required
Define shifting
ability to move flexibly between multiple tasks, operations or mental sets
Define the updating function
Keeping track of working memory operations and revising the information that you need to remember
What are the brain areas associated with Miyake’s function?
Supression - right intraparietal sulcus
Switching - left superior parietal sulcus
Updating - lateral prefrontal cortex
All have areas unique but also in common
What does Miyake’s framework fail to account for?
- Dual task performance
- Why the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is activated when performing two tasks simultaneously
What is the Stuss and Alexander (2007) model for the central executive?
3 processes: task setting, monitoring and energisation
Define monitoring and what brain area is it associated with?
- Reexamining the task to ensure that it is being carried out correctly
- right lateral frontal cortex
Define energisation and what brain area is it associated with?
- sustaining attention/concentration
- medial frontal cortex
What is the problem with the Stuss & Alexander framework?
Evidence for it is not present in healthy individuals
