week 6: attention and memory 1 Flashcards
what are the Three processes needed for any successful act of remembering
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
what is encoding
transform sensory stimuli into a form that can be placed in memory
what is storage
effectively retaining information for later use
what is retrieval
locating the item and using it (e.g., recall vs recognition)
Cherry’s (1953) cocktail party phenomenon summary
Set the party up with researchers and 1 participant and mimicked what happens in a cocktail party. Everyone had separate conversations and the researchers in another conversation said the participant’s name. the study found 1/3 of the time the participant’s name was said in the conversation they recognised it. Demonstrates the filter of attention (being able to consciously have a conversation but still filter external stimuli unconsciously)
Broadbent’s study on attention (filter)
found that:
- stimuli processed parallel (at the same time)
- one stimulus at a time allowed through filter others remained buffered
- filter prevents overload
types of encoding
visual, acoustic, elaborative, and semantic
The Role of Attention in Encoding
Amount/type of attention determines quality of encoding
Depth of processing is also influential
forms of depth processing
Maintenance rehearsal
Elaborative rehearsal
what is Elaborative rehearsal?
meaningful processing of information
eg. thinking about the material while trying to memorise
what is Maintenance rehearsal
rote repetition of information, without transformation into a deeper, more meaningful code
models in selective attention
early selection
late selection
Craik & Tulving research summary
comparing the difference between the types of encoding and if the way you encoded affected the ability to recall information.
Experiment controlled the way participants encoded information. Provided sample questionings that allowed a certain type of encoding. They ask them a question before showing participants a particular word. eg. is the word in capitals? then show a word to be processed visually. Then a question-based in acoustic encoding eg. does the word rhyme with train. then a semantic type question eg. would the word fit in this sentence and then provide a sentence (focusing on the meaning of word). Participants were quizzed on words they had seen later on and found semantic processing led to the best recall.
how to enrich encoding?
Elaborative rehearsal
Visual imagery
Self-referent encoding
what is Visual imagery
concrete objects recalled better than abstract items
what is Self-referent encoding
applying information processed to own self
how do we store memories?
- Sensory register
- Short term memory (STM)
- Long Term Memory (LTM)
what is Sensory register
storage system that registers (and briefly holds) information from the senses
types of sensory registers
Iconic memory
Echoic memory
Iconic memory sensory register
related to the visual system
< ½ second duration
9 to 10 items
Echoic memory Sensory register
related to the auditory system
~ 2 seconds duration
~ 5 items
The whole-report task
Sperling asked the participants to recall as many of the letters as they could. He found that no matter how many letters he presented, the participants could not recall more than 4.5 letters on average
what was The partial-report task
an array of letters/numbers in rows and on signal participants were asked to recall some numbers/letters but were unaware of which ones.
partial-report task results
Recall was lower when 1.5 seconds was added for participants. Recall was higher if asked immediately after. Demonstrates visual memory takes a lot of information but it fades extremely fast.
Short term memory (STM) storage
intermediate storage system that briefly holds information prior to consolidation
How large is STM?
7 items +/- 2
How long does STM last
~ 20 seconds duration
score can be inflated eg. using chunking
Chunking (STM)
units of subjective organisation
eg. phone numbers 3485 9235
how else can someone increase STM duration
rehearsal
if information isnt rehearsed what happens?
is lost as decay
how else can STM info be lost?
interference
Dual-task technique
Participants perform 2 tasks simultaneously and compared to participants with 1 task. Results in either both tasks being done poorly or one task being done poorly for the participants asked to complete 2 at the same time.
Working Memory key components
- Phonological (articulatory) loop/buffer
- Visuospatial sketchpad
- Central executive
what is Phonological (articulatory) loop/buffer
responsible for the manipulation of speech-based information
what is Visuospatial sketchpad
responsible for setting up and manipulating visual & spatial images
what is Central executive
attentional system which supervises and controls the two ‘slave’ systems
what is Long Term Memory (LTM)
storage system that retains information for a long period of term
what is Long Term Memory (LTM)
storage system that retains information for a long period of term
Long Term Memory characteristics
Large capacity.
Long duration
Different types of LTM
free recall-serial position effect
tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst
free recall general effects
Primacy effect
Recency effect
Context
Internal state
what is Primacy effect (recall)
memory best for things learned first
Recency effect (recall)
memory also good for things learned last (but mostly this is STM contribution to the task)
Context (recall)
memory is better when you are in the context you learned the material in
Internal state (recall)
memory is better when your internal state is the same as at the time of learning
