Wk4 - Phonological Loop

Question 1

Is memory unitary or non-unitary?

Answer 1

Non-unitary

Question 2

What does non-unitary mean in terms of memory?

Answer 2

The types of memory are independent of one another

Question 3

What evidence supports the idea that memory is non-unitary?

Answer 3

Double dissociations - brain damage can affect one type of memory but leave other memory types completely intact

Question 4

What is the biological basis of STM dependent on? Explain this.

Answer 4

Sensory modality

Memory for verbal information might be dependent on brain regions involved in verbal processing

Question 5

What is the WMM?

Answer 5

A model of STM processing, storage, and encoding

Question 6

What does the WMM suggest?

Answer 6

Suggests that sensory modality of the information being processed is important

Question 7

Who proposed the WMM?

Answer 7

Baddeley & Hitch

Question 8

What are the 4 components of the WMM?

Answer 8

Phonological loop
Visuospatial sketchpad
Central executive
Episodic buffer

Question 9

What does the phonological loop do?

Answer 9

Rehearses and encodes phonological/verbal information

Question 10

What are the 2 parts of the phonological loop?

Answer 10

Temporary phonological store - can hold a speech-based memory trace for up to 2 seconds

Articulatory control process - maintains information in the phonological store via rehearsal

Question 11

What is another name for rehearsal?

Answer 11

Sub-vocalisation

Question 12

What evidence is there for the phonological store being speech-based?

Answer 12

Phonological similarity effect

Question 13

What is the phonological similarity effect?

Answer 13

The idea that memory span for similar sounding words/letters is shorter than for dissimilar items.

This is because there are fewer distinctive features in similar sounding words/letters so these items are more susceptible to decay

Question 14

What evidence is there for the articulatory control process?

Answer 14

Articulatory suppression

Question 15

What happens in a cognitive experiment of articulatory suppression?

Answer 15

Participant utters irrelevant sounds whilst memorising information.

Participant is unable to rehearse the material because the irrelevant speech interferes with learning, rehearsal, and memory of the wanted items.

Question 16

What is the phonological loop important for?

Answer 16

Phonological encoding

Acquisition of language

Question 17

What evidence is there that suggests the phonological loop is required for language acquisition?

Answer 17

Studies on learning novel words.

Studies on non-word repetition.

Question 18

What are the findings from the P.V study on learning novel words?

Answer 18

P.V had normal paired-associate learning for meaningful word pairs.

P.V had an impaired capacity for learning novel words.

Question 19

What deficit did Patient P.V have?

Answer 19

A short-term phonological memory deficit

Question 20

What do the conclusions from P.V study and the normal subjects study of learning novel words suggest?

Answer 20

The phonological loop is important for learning new/novel words

The phonological loop may not be important in understanding speech/verbal information that has already been learnt

Question 21

What is the Patient P.V novel word study?

Answer 21

Patient P.V had to learn pairs of words.

Patient P.V was then given the first word of the pair and asked to provide the second word that goes along with it.

Question 22

What is the normal subjects novel word study?

Answer 22

Participants had to say something out loud whilst remembering material

Question 23

What did the normal subjects novel word study find?

Answer 23

Articulatory suppression disrupted learning/memory more so for novel phonological material than meaningful paired-associates.

Question 24

What have studies of non-word repetition found?

Answer 24

The capacity for learning and phonological storage is better predicted by non-word repetition than other measures (e.g., digit span)

Question 25

What can we conclude from studies of non-word repetition?

Answer 25

The purpose of the phonological loop is to encode and remember words that are new/novel/meaningless.

Question 26

What real-life application can non-word repetition findings relate to?

Answer 26

Learning languages

Finnish children’s capacity for learning English could be predicted by their capacity for non-word repetition better than other cognitive measures

Question 27

What brain imaging study was done to investigate neural correlates of the phonological loop?

Answer 27

Clark & Wagner (2003) - fMRI learning and remembering pseudo-words versus familiar words

Question 28

Explain what participants had to do in Clark & Wagner’s (2003) fMRI study

Answer 28

Participants were scanned whilst encoding stimuli of either pseudo-words or familiar words

Tested on their recognition memory of stimuli intermixed with new words

Had to say which words were old (previously seen) and which words were new

Question 29

How did the researcher’s look at activation in participants brains during encoding of pseudo-words?

Answer 29

Brain activation during encoding of pseudo-words - brain activation during encoding of real words

Looked at this contrast of activation

Question 30

According to Clark & Wagner’s (2003) study, which brain regions relate to the phonological loop?

Answer 30

Left inferior pre-frontal cortex

Bilateral inferior and superior parietal cortices

These brain areas were active during the pseudo-word learning

Question 31

What else did Clark & Wagner (2003) find in relation to brain activity and learning pseudo-words?

Answer 31

Positive correlation in terms of activity

The greater activity in the left inferior prefrontal cortex and bilateral superior parietal cortex and inferior parietal cortex, the greater the likelihood of remembering the pseudo-words.

This is because learning the pseudo-words requires more phonological loop activity.

Question 32

What 3 brain regions are suggested to be a biological basis for the phonological loop?

Answer 32

Left inferior pre-frontal cortex

Bilateral superior parietal cortex

Inferior parietal cortex

Question 33

What brain region is suggested to be crucial for the temporary rehearsal and sub-vocalisation of verbal material?

Answer 33

Left inferior frontal cortex

Question 34

What brain region is suggested to be crucial for inner speech?

Answer 34

Left inferior frontal cortex

Question 35

What is inner speech necessary for?

Answer 35

Articulatory control processing

Question 36

What can happen if the left inferior frontal cortex is damaged?

Answer 36

Inner speech can be abolished/lost

Question 37

What is an interesting finding about damage to the inferior frontal cortex and verbal STM?

Answer 37

Even if inner speech is abolished, verbal STM can be intact due to the role of visual imagery.

Visual imagery from other parts of the brain may compensate to make up for what is being lost by the inner speech. Plasticity.