Week 4 Memory Flashcards
memory is active anytime
some past experience has an effect on the way you think or behave now or in the future
persistence of vision
Continued perception of a visual stimulus even after it is no longer present
Sensory memory
brief persistance of an image
Important in the procedure for measuring how much information we can take in immediately, and how much of that information remains half a second late
the modal model of memory proposes
turns sensory signals into meaning
3 types of memory
sensory
STM
LTM
as well as control processes like rehearsal
conclusions of Sperling’s experiements
Short-lived sensory memory pretty much perceives everything, but the information decays within less than a second
Sperling helped to measure
iconic memory capacity using whole report, partial report, and delayed partial report methods
describe echoic memory
auditory memory that lasts a few seconds
when rehearsal is prevented, what is the duration of STM
15-20seconds
Millers Magic Number
7 +- 2 (number of digits a person can remember on average)
change detection number/capacity
we on average can notice 4 changes in a scene
change detection becomes harder when
the number of items exceeds STM capacity
describe chunking as described by George Miller
A collection of elements that are strongly associated with one another but are weakly associated with elements in other chunks
Chunking in terms of meaning increases our ability to hold info in STM
Helps to deal with larger amounts of info in the limited-capacity STM
Describe the case of ‘S’ who Luria studied
he had no capacity or duration limits to his memory and could recall all types of info in any order, but couldn’t explain how he did it
the more complex the stimuli the ___ space in STM
less
What did ‘S’ struggle with due to having such a good memory
difficulty with faces as they are changeable
too focused on details
- couldn’t get the gist or focus on the general/abstract ideas
people thought of him as dull and dim witted
S was one of the first recorded cases of
synesthesia: stimulation in one sense leads to an impression in another sense
sounds were images to him - could make really good cues for memories as a result
memory
information that persists in the brain
it is a distributed process (not boxes in the brain)
Describe the Clive Wearing case
amnesia, 20-30 second memory
he is conscious of just being in the moment (so our memory is intimately linked with consciousness and experience of the world)
does time play a role in memory?
yes, information present to you in the moment has the best shot of being retained, and this dwindles quickly with time
what helps move information along the modal model of memory
sensory to STM is attention
STM to LTM is rehearsal
LTM to STM is retrieval
if processes are not done the information is forgotten
why is it so hard to test sensory memory
the act of testing interferes with it
capacity of iconic memory
at least 9 items, but argued to be underestimated even when using partial reports
what does iconic memory represent
visual properties of the stimulus
- seeing lines and vertices
can then apply attention to recognize patterns and put it into primary memory/awareness
sensory memory = buffer, then we apply process to extract meaning
duration for the partial report average of iconic memory
1 second
capacity, duration and representation of echoic memory
capacity; large
duration: 1-2 seconds (can ‘replay’ due to this buffer)
representation: phonetic code
what is the primacy effect vs the recency effect
primacy: more likely to remember stimuli (words) from the start as they have more time to be rehearsed
recency effect: more likely to remember due to that you just listened to it
recency effect is an effect of ___ memory
echoic
the two types of interference
proactive (old to new) and retroactive (new to old)
what is STM, its capacity and duration
the info you are currently thinking about
capacity Millers #
duration 10 secs
what is the word length effect
longer words take longer to say, so fewer are remembered in STM
longer the word, less time to rehearse
evidence for verbal (acoustic) representation in STM
verbal items are harder to retain if they sound the same
- when we read we encode those words/letters as sounds instead of visuals
how can we increase capacity
chunking
results of Brown-Peterson task
without rehearsal, memory lasts for 18 secs max
forgetting occurs from decay
when items are of similar categories, they are harder to remember (proactive interference builds up)
loss of info (forgetting) from STM happens from
decay
interference
working memory
‘limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning and reasoning
- Active processes like understanding conversations
manipulating info during complex cognition
components of WM
phonological loop (recycling of verbal material)
-phonological store (passive retention), articulatory loop (active rehearsal)
central executive: coordinates the other two, makes everything work, attention controller
visuospatial sketch pad: manipulation of visual and spatial info, mental rotation
effects of the phonological loop
Phonological Similarity effect
○ The confusion of letters or words that sound similar
Word Length Effect
○ Memory for lists of words is better for short words than long words
○ Pronunciation of 1.5-2 seconds for the items leads to good memory
Articulatory Suppression
○ Discovered from observing what happens when the operation of the loop is disrupted
○ Prevention of rehearsal
○ The repetition of an irrelevant sound
§ Reduces memory because speaking interferes with rehearsal
what was added to the WM model to explain storage to LTM and capacity/chunking
episodic buffer
Can store information (providing extra capacity)
connected to LTM (thereby making interchange between WM and LTM possible)
binds info from components
explain how neural networks can help with memory
neurons fire (activity state) and in their delay, the synaptic state/connections are strengthened, so we remember faster through that pathway
low vs high capacity
refers to how many items you can have in WM
frontal lobe damage in adults is similar to the brains of children in that
they are slow to switch ideas, and ideas perseverate
problems the episodic buffer aimed to fix
articulatory suppression
binding problem: we can recall things in a multimodal way
-the main one
with working memory, when would we expect interference
when one of the stores is overwhelmed by a complex task, so even a simple task in the other store is messed with
or if multiple tasks in one store are happening
in older folks, memory maintenance and ability to switch declines, but what does not
sustained attention
