Topic 5: Short-Term and Working Memory Flashcards
Topic 5
What is the processing of memory?
Retaining, Retrieving, and using information about the stimuli we encounter
What are the 5 types of memory?
- Sensory
- Short-Term
- Long-Term Episodic
- Long-Term Procedural
- Long-Term Semantic
What did Atkinson and Shiffrin propose?
Control Processes
What is Control Processes?
Associated with the structural features, these can be controlled by the person
What is Rehersal and Attention?
- Repeating information over and over with the goal of keeping that information in STM
- Purposefully keeping our attention on something to hold it in STM
What is Ionic Memory?
Brief sensory memory for visual information that rapidly decays once the stimulus is removed
What is Echoic Memory?
Same as ionic, but for auditory information
What is the Short-Term Memory system?
The system involved in storing small amounts of information for a brief period of time
Do we underestimate the STM?
Often underestimate how frequently we use STM and its importance
What is the Auditory Consonant Trigrams?
a memory test that measures working memory by presenting a sequence of three consonants and requiring participants to recall them after a delay, during which they perform a distractor task
How is information is held and/or lost in the short-term memory?
Not only is information rapidly lost from STM but there is also a limit to how much can be held there
How can STM memory be evaluated?
Digit span tasks
How can we measure how many items can be held in STM?
Measured using change detection tasks
If our STM limit is so low, how is it possible that we can sometimes hold many more items than this in our memory?
Chunking
What is chunking??
Combining small units of information into larger ones in order to increase STM capacity
What is the Working Memory?
A limited-capacity system for using the information in temporary storage and manipulating it for complex tasks
what does Letter-Number Sequencing sllow us to do?
Working memory allows us to carry out two tasks simultaneously
What is the phonological loop?
Holds and processes verbal and auditory information
What is the Visuospatial sketch pad?
Holds and processes visual and spatial information
What is the Central Executive?
Coordinates the other two parts
- Decides how to divide your attention between the other two
Explain the phonological Loop system?
A system specialized for language; explains some language phenomenon
What is the phonological similarity effect?
The confusion of words or letters that sound the same
What did Conrad (1964) find?
Found that when errors were made, they were most likely idenitfied as similar sounding letters and not similar looking letters
What is the word length effect?
More difficult to remember a list of long words than a list of short words
What is Articulatory Suppression?
Interference that occurs when a person repeats irrelevant words while carrying out a phonological loop task
What is involved in visual imagery?
The creation of images in the mind in the absence of any physical visual stimulus
What does the Central Executive store or coordinate?
Does no storing; it coordinates how information is used by the other two parts
Why is the Central Executive known as the “attention Controller”
- Determines where attention is focused
- Determines how attention gets divided
- Determines when we switch our attention
What part of the brain is crucial for the working memory?
Frontal Lobes… in particular, the pre-frontal cortex
What happens when the central executive is injured?
Injuries result in difficulties with attentional control
What is preservation?
A breakdown of the central executives ability to control attention or shift away from one thing to another
What is the episodic buffer?
“An extra backup” storage that communicates with both working memory and long-term memory
What is baddeley’s revised model?
Central Executive —>
Phonological loop…Episodic buffer… Visuospatial sketchpad —>
Long-Term Memory
