Week 8 Visual & Working Memory

Question 1

What are the 3 qualities of iconic memory?

Answer 1

1. It has a large capacity
2. It has a short duration (susceptible to decaying quickly)
3. It is highly vulnerable to being overwritten by newer information

Question 2

What did Sperling (1960) find with iconic memory in the full vs. partial report condition?

Answer 2

1. In the whole report condition - (try to report as many letters as possible) most people report 4 out of 12 items, regardless of stimulus duration = 33.3% accuracy rate
2. In the partial report condition = (a cue is presented indicating telling participants which line to report in the array), participants could report the whole line with perfect accuracy = 100% accuracy rate

Question 3

What do the findings of Sperling indicate about the partial report condition? (partial report advantage)

Answer 3

We have a partial report advantage!

The increased likelihood of being able to accurately report a line of the array compared to the likelihood of reporting the same array in the whole report condition.

The cue indicates what row of information to store into VSTM, leading to accurate declarative memory.

Question 4

What other type of memory enables us to have a partial report advantage?

Answer 4

Iconic memory

Question 5

What 3 things does the partial report advantage say about iconic memory?

Answer 5

1. The PRA implies that there is a memory store that has encoded the entire array of stimuli that can be elicited through a proceeding cue telling them which line to remember
2. Since this memory of everything is not able to be reported in the full report condition, it also implies that this memory store is highly temporary and quickly lost before its able to be properly consolidated into VSTM due to the brief presentation.
3. Since the partial report advantage is impaired after 100ms, it indicates that this brief memory store is easily masked/overwritten by other additional information.

Question 6

How are iconic memory and STM are similar to the two-stage bottleneck model?

Answer 6

1. Stage 1 bottleneck and iconic memory are both fragile but have a large capacity
2. Stage 2 and STM are robust but more finite capacity stores
3. The transition from stage 1 to stage 2 overrides newer information is similar to how iconic information is being overridden by some of the information being transferred into STM.

Question 7

How many items can the visual short term memory hold on average?

Answer 7

Four items

Question 8

What are the 3 things that make VSTM more robust than iconic memory?

Answer 8

1. Once an item is encoded, it is less susceptible to being forgotten
2. The VSTM is not dependent on time between the array and the cue, unlike iconic memory
3. Not susceptible to being overridden with additional information

Question 9

How do modern studies on VSTM measure VSTM more accurately?

Answer 9

They use continuous report measures rather than forced choice measures to give researchers more detailed information on a participants VSTM and the fidelity of their representation information

not detection but rather having to describe objects by picking unique shades etc.

Question 10

What is working memory and what is it for?

Answer 10

1. WM is the temporary maintenance of information in memory, holding things in memory while processing other things
2. It is used to control and regulate attention for goal-relevant information in the midst of other competing information

Question 11

What are the 3 main features of Baddeley’s WWM?

Answer 11

1. The Central executive is the attentional control system that coordinates information from all other systems
2. Visuospatial sketchpad (visual images processing and perception)
3. Phonological loop (auditory information and language processing)

Question 12

What evidence supports the WMM?

Answer 12

1. People find it more difficult to remember similar sounding letters but not similar vs. different semantic content does not have this effect, indicating that phonemes are the fundamental unit of the phonological loop
2. Chess decisions and memory for spatial arrangements on a chess board are affected by a visuospatial load, but not a verbal load, indicating that there are two different stores in working memory

Question 13

What are the two experimental tasks to measure working memory?

Answer 13

1. Single span tasks: asking participants to remember one type of information presented to them
2. Complex span tasks: remember information while also processing other information at the same time (dual task processing)

Question 14

What are 3 types of complex span tasks / dual processing tasks?

Answer 14

1. Operation span (OSPAN) - doing maths & remembering letters
2. Reading Span - remembering letters & judging whether sentences are semantically meaningful
3. Symmetry Span - remembering symmetries with spatial visual judgements

Question 15

How are complex span tasks measured for accuracy?

Answer 15

In the recall phase!
Eg. how many letters remembered while maintaining accurate no. of correct semantic answers / math questions

Question 16

How does working memory capacity relate to attentional control?

Answer 16

Higher working memory is associated with adaptive / flexible regulation of attention

It is related to the ability to inhibit task-irrelevant stimuli in attention

Question 17

What 4 things is good working memory associated with?

Answer 17

1. Good reading comprehension
2. Inhibition of task irrelevant information
3. Strong regulation of attention to comply with the task instructions, ie. not hearing name in the unattended stream of dichotic listening task
4. Reduced stroop and flanker interference effects

Question 18

What individual differences in anxiety and empathy levels are associated with working memory?

Answer 18

Anxious individuals have less good WM, less efficient at switching between tasks, inhibiting irrelevant information and have lower attentional control. It could be result of rumination impairing attention.

Those with cognitive empathy and high working memory leads to less egocentric errors when talking with a speaker in a complex span task

Question 19

Is WMC related to cognitive appraisal?

Answer 19

Negative affect to stressful events reduced among participants with higher WMC

The flexible and strategic use of attention in people with high WMC could also be linked with cognitive appraisal

Eg. higher ability to direct their attention to a more positive or constructive outlook and regulate negative and stressful emotions related to stressful situations.