Unit 3 Flashcards
What kind of memories did William James distinguish between?
- Primary memory
- Secondary memory
What did William James regarded primary memory as?
closely associated with conscious awareness
What does Secondary memory refer to?
more durable memories
What was the term short-term memory (STM) used to in the late 1950s?
to refer to tasks in which small amounts of material were retained over brief intervals
What did the term long-term memory (LTM) involve in the late 1950s?
retention over more than a few seconds
What is the digital span test?
subjects presented with sequence of items which they attempt to reproduce in the presented order then
What is the digit span test typically referred to as?
as reflecting short-term memory (STM)
What did the attempt to develop information-processing models of short-term memory (STM) led to?
some major controversies
-> STM models didnt’t work properly
What was the consequence of the unresolved issues with short-term memory models in the 1970s?
led to a decline of interest in STM and even to a declaration of its demise
Which framework replaced the old concept of Short-term Memory after the old concept of STM was losing favor?
working memory
What does Short-term memory (STM) refer to?
performance on a particular type of task involving the simple retention of small amounts of information
-> tested immediately or after a short delay
What do the memory System or systems responsible for STM form?
part of the working memory system
What is working memory (WM)?
a multicomponent and integrated system (workspace) that temporarily stores and manipulates information
What are the main functions of working memory (WM)?
storing and manipulating information
Which complex cognitive activities does Working Memory allow people to perform?
- Reasoning
- Learning
- Comprehension
What were subjects required to to in the working memory span test?
to read out a series of sentences and then recall the final word of each
-> maximum number of sentences for which all the final words can be correctly recalled is the working memory span
What does the working memory span ranges between for normal subjects?
between 2 and 5
What is the memory capacity limited to according to Miller?
not by the number of items to be recalled but by the number of chunks
What is chunking?
the process of combining a number of items into a single chunk
-> typically on the basis of long-term memory
What can grouping be induced by according to Ryan and Wickelgren?
by the rhythm with which a sequence of items is presented
What is chunking taking advantage of?
cues from prosody by separating into coherent phrases the continous sequence of sounds that make up the normal speech stream
What seems to be best in chunks?
grouping in threes
What does Atkinson & Shiffrin’s model or modal model assume?
that the longer an item was held in STS, the greater the chance of it being transferred to the LTS
-> model presents mayor problems
Is the influential model of STM by Atkinson & Shiffrin true?
no, it is incorrect
What is the phonological loop by Baddeley and Hitch?
part of the multicomponent working memory model
What is the phonological loop responsible for?
the temporary storage of speech-like information
What are the 2 subcomponents of the phonological loop?
- a short-term store
- an articulatory rehearsal process
Phonological loop
What does the subcomponent short-term store mean?
- limited in capacity
- memory traces decay within a few seconds
What does the subcomponent articulatory rehearsal process store mean?
the traces can be refreshed by subvocal rehearsal (e.g. saying item to youself)
What are the limitations in a digit span test?
- with few digits: we can say them all in less time than it takes for the first digit to fade away
- with more digits: total time to rehearse them will be greater -> chance of itmes fading before they are refreshed will increase
What is the phonological similarity effect by Conrad?
What can errors be provoked by?
letter span is reduced for similar-sounding items
-> errors can be provoked when recalling visually presented consonants that tended to be similar in sound to the correct items
The phonological similarity effect - Conrad
What is recall based on?
an acoustic code
When does the phonological similarity effect occurs?
At retrieval
-> similar items have fewer distinguished features - likely to be confused
What do the studies (phonological loop and phonological similarity effect) suggest a predilection for?
- acoustic coding in short-term memory
- semantic coding in long-term memory
The phonological similarity effect - Conrad
what is auditory speech assumed to?
to feed directly into the phonological store
-> visually presented items can also be fed into the store if they are nameable through a process of vocal/subvocal articulation (you say the items yourself)
What does the word length effect refer to?
the fact that longer words are often harder to remember than short words
-> even when other factors such as word familiarity or semantic complexity are controlled for
Why do we remember longer words less accurately?
Longer words may occupy more resources in this memory, making it more difficult to keep them active and retrieve them accurately
What did Baddeley and Hitch propose about the word length effect?
that subvocal maintenance rehersal occurs in real-time, hence long words take longer to rehearse, allowing more forgetting through trace decay
What did Cowan suggest about the word length effect?
that the word length effect principally is a function of forgetting during the process of recall
-> longer words taking longer to produce, hence allowing more decay
How can the word length effect be tested according by Baddeley?
using articulatory suppression
-> requiring participants to repeat an irrelevant sound such as the word “the” while performing the memory task abolishes the word length effect
e.g. instead of car: the the car
What were the results of Baddeley’s articulatory suppression in the word length effect?
people remember fewer words but with no difference between span for long and short words
Why could people presumably remember fewer words in the articulary supression?
because suprresion prevents the visually presented words from reaching the articulatory rehearsal process
What influence does the act of recalling an item has on remembering?
it produces forgetting itself
-> time taken to recall allows further trace decay & disrupts the memory trace
Verbal STM
What is the modality effect?
auditory presentation tending to give a slight advantage, particularly over the last one or two items
What is the presentation rate in verabl STM?
(faster and slower)
- faster rates run the risk of errors owing to failure to perceive
- slower rates give sufficient time for subjects to engage in complex and often highly variable rehearsal strategies
Irrelevant sound effects
What does verbal STM have a tendency to be disrupted by?
by concurrent fluctuation sounds
-> including both speech and music
Irrelevant sound effects
What can speech impair?
the memorization of visual digits
Irrelevant sound effects
What can digit recall not be impaired by?
unpatterned noise
Does the intensity of irrelevant non-speech sounds influence STM performance?
no
What can we recall earlier and more often?
- items presented at the beginning of the list
- items presented at the end of the list
what do we call the effect of recalling items presented at the beginning of the list earlier and more often?
primacy effect
What do we call the effect of recalling items presented at the end of the list earlier and more often?
recency effect
Which of the effects (primacy/recency effect) is less marked and less robus?
the primacy effect
What might the primacy effect reflect?
a number of variables, but in particular the tendency to give more attention and possibly more rehearsal to the intitial item
What do variables that are known to influence LTM impact upon?
the earlier items but not the recency effect
How does the rate of presentation affect long-term learning?
A shorter presentation time makes learning easier
How does familiarity of material affect long-term learning?
Familiar words are easier to remember.
How does imageability of words affect long-term learning?
Words that can be visualized are easier to remember
How does the presence of a secondary task affect long-term learning?
A secondary task can make learning more difficult by dividing attention
How does the age of the subject affect long-term learning?
Age can influence learning ability, with younger individuals often having an advantage in memory retention
How does physiological state affect long-term learning?
Factors like fatigue, stress, and overall health can impact memory and learning efficiency
what impact do those variables have:
- Rate of presentation
- Familiarity of material
- Imageability of the words
- presence of secondary task
- Age
- Physiological state
all of these were found to influence the earlier part of the serial position curve but NONE impacted on recency
What does the recency effect (RE) state?
reflects a specific retrieval strategy that takes advantage of the fact that the most recent events are the most readily available to recall
-> NOT LIMITED to any single type of memory system
Recency effect
what could serve the highly important role of orienting yourself in space and time?
the greater accessibility of the most recent experience
What is the change detection method?
experiment of phillips in 1974 where subjects presented with a matrix of which half the cells were filled -> presenting a second matrix for recognition after a filled delay varying in length
typically around 16 cells, not longer accurately reproducable
What can we result from the change detection method?
that virtual STM has a limited capacity
How is the capacity of the visual LTM?
might not be precise but it has capacity to store enough to distinguish between pictures seen and non-seen pictures
How is the capacity of the visual STM?
only have the capacity to maintain three to four item
-> appears to benefit from an active attempt to maintain an item in the focus of attention
What is Binding in Nonverbal STM?
the capacity to reunite the features of an object
-> separate channels encode different features (e.g. shape and color) to be experienced as a single object
How does binding affect performance in STM tasks?
Performance in the binding condition is often no worse than in the harder of the two single-feature conditions
Does binding shape and color require additional cognitive effort?
The process of binding shape and color may operate automatically
How does an attentionally demanding task affect binding in visual short-term memory?
should interfere more with the binding condition than with separate feature conditions, but studies show no difference in disruption.
What does the study by Allen, Baddeley & Hitch (2006) suggest about the process of binding shape and color?
process of binding shape and color appears to be automatic, as attentional disruption did not differ across conditions
What do we remember how in visual short-term memory?
(colors, shapes, bound features)
- colors: easiest to remember
- shapes: somewha harder
- bound features: nonsignificantly harder
-> in each case, cuncurrent attentional task interfered with performance but crucially impairment was no greater in binding condition than it was in single feature cases
What is a classic spatial task?
the block tapping test
-> corsi span
what does evidence for separate visual and spatial components of the STM system come from?
neuropsychological studies
-> separate patients capable of performing the corsi block. but not the pattern span task and vice versa
visuo-spatial memory
what do most disrupting tasks tend to involve?
both visual and spatial processing
-> may also tend to have an executive component
What does the model of Baddeley propose?
the existence of four functional components of working memory
Baddeleys model
What is a phonological loop?
storage and maintenance of information in a phonological format
-> retrieve and rearticulate the information retained in the phonological store to refresh the memory footprint
Baddeleys model
What are 2 parts of the phonological loop?
- passive phonological store: passively holding memory traces in acoustic or phonological format for a few seconds before they fade
- active process of articulatory review (subvocal speech): function to retrieve and rearticulate the information retained in the phonological store to refresh the memory footprint
Baddeleys model
What is the visuspatial sketchpad?
storage and maintenance of visual and spatial information
-> regardless of the phonological loop
Baddeleys model
What are two parts of the visuospatial sketchpad?
- visual cache (or visual buffer): retention of visual information that has not been modified by coding
- inner scribe (or spatial sketchpad): active processing allows us the transformation, manipulation or integration of stored spatial information
Baddeleys model
What is the central executive component?
limited attentional capacity control system responsible for manipulating information and controlling the subsidiary storage systems (phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer)
Baddeleys model
What are 3 abilites in the central executive component?
- ability to focus attention
- ability to divide attention
- ability to run or activate the appropriate task
Baddeleys model
What is the episodic buffer?
Exam
- a separate storage passive system that can hold about four items of information (or chunks)
- ability to store information with different codes
- receives information from the phonological loop, from the visuospatial sketchpad, and from the long-term memory
Baddeleys model
What is the capacity of the phonological loop?
a maximum capacity of around 5 items
Baddeleys model
What is the function of the episodic buffer in memory?
helps integrate information and solve problems with semantically related nouns
Baddeleys model
How does the episodic buffer extend memory capacity beyond the phonological loop?
allows retrieval of information from lists of related word pairs (e.g., cure – saint), exceeding the phonological loop’s capacity
