Week 5 - Memory (part 1)

Question 1

Structural features of the modal model of memory

Answer 1

Sensory memory
Short-term memory
Long-term memory

Question 2

Three control processes of the modal model of memory

Answer 2

• Rehearsal
• Making the stimulus more memorable (e.g. relating stimulus to other well established memory)
• Strategies of attention that help you focus on particular details of interest or importance

Question 3

Persistence of vision

Answer 3

Persistence of vision is the continued perception of a visual stimulus even after it is
no longer present. This persistence lasts for only a fraction of a second, so it isn’t obvious in everyday experience when objects are present for long periods. However, the persistence of vision effect is noticeable for brief stimuli, like the moving sparkler or rapidly flashed pictures in a movie theater

Question 4

Working Memory

Answer 4

A limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning.

Question 5

Three components of working memory, according to Baddeley

Answer 5

the phonological loop,
the visuospatial sketch pad,
and the central executive

Question 6

phonological loop (two components)

Answer 6

• The phonological store, which has a limited capacity and holds information for only a few seconds,
• Articulatory rehearsal process, which is responsible for rehearsal that can keep items in the phonological store from decaying

Question 7

visuospatial sketch pad

Answer 7

holds visual and spatial information.

When you form a picture in your mind or do tasks like solving a puzzle or finding your way around campus, you are using your visuospatial sketch pad. As you can see from the diagram, the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad are attached to the central executive.

Question 8

The central executive

Answer 8

Where the major work of working memory occurs.

The central executive pulls information from long-term memory and coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and visuospatial sketch pad by focusing on specific parts of a task and deciding how to divide attention between different tasks. The central executive is therefore the “traffic cop” of the working memory system.

Question 9

Coding

Answer 9

refers to the form in which stimuli are represented.

E.g. 1 Determining how a stimulus is represented by the firing of neurons is a physiological approach to coding.

E.g. 2 Mental approach to coding by asking how a stimulus or an experience is represented in the mind. To compare the way information is represented in the mind in STM and LTM systems, we describe visual coding (coding in the mind in the form of a visual image), auditory coding (coding in the mind in the form of a sound), and semantic coding (coding in the mind in terms of meaning) in both STM and LTM.