Theme 1: Short-term memory

Question 1

phonological similarity effect

Answer 1

similar sounding letters/words are remembered worse than differently sounding ones

Question 2

Baddeley & Hitch: Three-component model of WM

Answer 2

Central executive, visuospatial sketchpad (visual cache, inner scribe) and phonological loop (phonological store, articulatory rehearsal process)

Question 3

How is serial order maintained?

Answer 3

chaining interpretations: each item forms a cue/stimulus for the following item

Question 4

problems with serial order: what is the same item reoccurs? what if items are phonologically similar?

Answer 4

• Burgess & Hitch: contextual models: order is maintained through contextual cues
• page & norris: its based on positional associations between the first and sebsequent items

Question 5

proposed function of the phonological loop

Answer 5

facilitate acquisition of language (phonological loop capacity is good predictor of acquisition of new language)

Question 6

episodic buffer

Answer 6

• limited capacity store binding together episodic information
• connected to long term episodic memory
• attentionally controlled by the central executive

Question 7

N-back test

Answer 7

subjects are presented with a continuous stream of items and are instructed to press a key when they detect a repetition at a specified delay (for example: n = 3, press key when repetition with three items ago)

Question 8

Norman & Shallice’s model of attentional control

Answer 8

attentional control is divided into 2 processes:
- control of behaviour by habit patterns and schemas
- attentionally limited controller called the supervisory activating system (SAS) = intervene when routine control is insufficient

Question 9

fluid intelligence

Answer 9

ability to reason and solve problems independent of previously acquired knowledge

Question 10

Jaeggi article: improving fluid intelligence by WM training+ limitations

Answer 10

Goal: does WM training lead to transfer to fluid intelligence?
Method: N-back test (auditory string of letters or spatial locations on a screen), as performance improved –> n also improved
Results: exp & control group both improved, but exp group improved more
limitations:
- no threshold phenomenon: how long could continue to improve?
- no longitudinal effects: long term effect?

Question 11

Harrisson et al: WM training may increase WM capacity but not fluid intelligence

Answer 11

-Criticism on Jaeggi: complex span task & n-back does not measure same construct
-goal: does WM training improve WM capacity? does that transfer to fluid intelligence?
-hypotheses:
–Near transfer: WMC improved similar task/stimuli
–moderate transfer: different tasks, both measuring WMC
–far transfer: complex span task –> improved in fluid intelligence
-results: moderate transfer for complex span and simple span training groups

Question 12

how do we use STM when we need to retrieve information? Serial vs parallel vs cascading

Answer 12

-Serial = search through items one by one until we find our answer
-parallel = multiple items are held own STM at the same time & divided among cognitive resources
-cascading = mixed both

Question 13

Sternberg investigated r theories of STM search:

Answer 13

• Parallel search: all items are addressed at the same time –> RT does NOT vary with set size & no difference between yes&no responses
• Serial self terminating search: serial then stop when you find the item –> increase in RT with set size & steep slope for no & yes, but yes is half the size of no
• serial exhaustive search: always searching the full set serially –> increasing RTs &no difference for yes/no answers
  RESULTS: support for serial exhaustive search