Working Memory

Question 1

what are the different informational proicessing techniques used in cognitive psychology?

Answer 1

○ Bottom-up: directly affected by the stimulus input (data-driven)
○ Top-down: influenced by an individual’s expectations/knowledge (what you already know)
○ Serial processing: Only one cognitive process occurs at any one time (one has to be completed for another to start)
Parallel processing: More than one process occurs at the same time (doing several things at the same time)

Question 1

what is cognitive psychology?

Answer 1

○ Use behavioural evidence to understand cognition.
* Things people do.

Question 2

what is metatheory?

Answer 2

a set of assumptions and guiding principles

Question 3

why is metatheory importnat in cognitive research?

Answer 3

• Scientists need more than just questions when deciding:
  ○ What experiments need to be done?
  ○ How should these experiments be undertaken?
  ○ When we are trying to find things out, we need more than just questions
• Use operationalisation in order to measure them.
• ○ Not guaranteed to be an accurate measure of peoples thoughts- need to find out what is the best way to measure it in order to get the most reliable outcomes.
  ○ People not aware of every thought occurring.
  ○ Where to start?
  ○ What to look for?
  ○ What to be aware of?

Question 4

what is meant by the term human computer?

Answer 4

• Human beings are data processing systems.
  A way of understanding human’s cognitive processes

Question 5

what are the 3 stages of memory?

Answer 5

1. encoding
2. storage
3. retrieval

Question 6

what is encoding?

Answer 6

• Process of placing new information in memory
  ○ Change into a form that can be stored
  § Abstract out information- we don’t recall every detail.
  § Pick out key points that are the most memorable and important for what we are trying to achieve.
• Sensory input= anything that happens during the experiene (senses)
• Encoding & storage= the information is stored in a way that is understandable.
  sensory input -> encoding -> storage

Question 7

what is storage?

Answer 7

• Concerns the nature of memory stores
  ○ Where is information stored?
  § Is it all in our brain?
  ○ How long will it last (duration)?
  § Long term memory has no known capacity or duration- may be there for the rest of your life (never forget them).
  § Autobiographical memory
  ○ How much can be stored (capacity)?
  § are not aware when our memory is “full”.
  ○ What kind of information is stored?
  § Why is some information more memorable than others?
• Known as a memory trace
  ○ information stored in some way for later use
  Available in memory

Question 8

what is retrieval?

Answer 8

• Recovering stored information from memory
  ○ Bring info from memory to consciousness.
• Can take one of two forms
  
  1. Recall
     ○ Retrieve information from memory in response to a cue or question
  2. Recognition
     ○ Refers to ability to identify if encountered something before (i.e. familiarity)
     ○ Something previously seen.

Question 9

what is the multi-store model?

Answer 9

• Distinguish between short-term memory and long-term memory
  Both have different attributes

Question 10

what are the different attributes between STM and LTM?

Answer 10

STM:
* Limited capacity (only information that is being attended to at that time)
* Hold items for short duration
* Physical/sensory codes (focus on immediate experience)
* Trace decay/interference
* Primarily associated with the
* Prefrontal cortex

LTM
* Unlimited capacity (haven’t yet reached a point where people cannot remember anything else).
* Indefinite duration/permanent
* Meaning/semantic codes (rather than immediate experience, abstraction of knowledge, not verbatim recall)
* Cue dependent forgetting (basis of how memory can be retrieved)
* Primarily associated with the
* Hippocampus

Question 11

what is atkinson & shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store model?

Answer 11

• Sensory store is information taken in from what is happening around you in the environment.
  ○ A lot of it tends to be ignored
  ○ A momentary impression
  ○ Relates to sensory experience of the world.
• Anything that is paid attention to, goes to the short term memory
  ○ Information will be displaced if something better is found
  If information is continued to be thought about (rehearsal), it goes to the long term memory.

Question 12

what are sensory stores?

Answer 12

• Modality specific
  ○ Iconic memory = visual store
  § Things you see
  ○ Echoic memory = auditory store
  § Things you hear
• Holds information very briefly (1-2s)
  ○ Information lost via decay (i.e., memory traces fade over time)
  ○ Due to us not being able to remember everything we experience.
• Attention occurs after information held in sensory stores
  Some information that is attended is processed by short-term store

Question 13

what is sensory input and attention?

Answer 13

• While you may think you are taking in everything around you, you should be aware that this isn’t necessarily the case.
• May be due to short term capacity changes.
  Have to actively pay attention to changes to see them occur.

Question 14

what is short-term store?

Answer 14

• Very limited capacity
  ○ Amount remembered depends on the complexity.
  ○ 7 ± 2 items (Miller, 1956)
• Items versus chunks
  ○ Help to increase knowledge.
  ○ Can integrate information into a single whole.
  ○ Integration of smaller units
• Information lost via:
  ○ Displacement = when store is full, new information pushes-out old information to take its place.
  replaces something else.

Question 15

what is displacement and interference?

Answer 15

• Serial recall task
  ○ Recall items in exact sequence
  ○ Memory advantage for first and last few items
  More reliably observed.

Question 16

what is recency?

Answer 16

• Recency
  ○ Subject to displacement
  ○ New items displace old items (something that you are already trying to remember)
  ○ Last item= no new information- nothing else needed to be remembered
  § Remains fresh in your memory.
  ○ Redundant suffix item at end of list disrupts recency
  If the last thing they see, they know they don’t have to remember it, will affect the ability to remember the information given to them last.

Question 17

what is primacy?

Answer 17

○ Subject to interference
○ Involves long-term memory
§ Stays with you
○ Earlier items in list get full attention
§ Nothing else has happened that needs remembering
§ Processing is more soldi and efficient
§ More time to remember the letters at the start of the list.
○ Slower presentation rate= longer time for attention, so more items remembered.
Can pay more attention to information.

Question 18

what is a long-term store?

Answer 18

• Information transferred from short-term to long-term store via rehearsal
  ○ More something is rehearsed, the easier it will be for that information to be consolidated into the long term memory.
• Unlimited capacity (in an experiment by Standing et al. (1970) participants successfully learnt to recognise 2500 different pictures)
• Stores information over a very long period of time
• Information lost via:
  – Interference= some memories hinder the retrieval of other memories
  ○ Can be aspects of displacement
  § E.g.: learning to use a new software that means you have to relearn how to use it.
  Leads to confusion and forgetting.

Question 19

what are the strengths of the multi-store model?

Answer 19

○ Widely accepted that there are
three distinct memory systems
* Evidence to support separate short- and long-term memory

Question 20

what are the weaknesses of the multi-store model?

Answer 20

○ Oversimplified, as stores do not operate in a single, uniform way
§ Individual differences in memory
○ Cannot explain implicit learning
§ Learning something that we didn’t want to (random pieces of information)
○ Information only transferred to long- term memory via rehearsal
May not be the case- shown through information that we have not made an effort to learn.

Question 21

what are levels of processing according to craik and lockhart?

Answer 21

• Major challenge to the multi-store approach
• Processes during learning determines information stored in long-term memory
  ○ Has substantial impact on whether the information will be recalled.
  ○ Memories are by-products of perception, attention and comprehension
  Craik & Lockhart (1972)
• Levels of processing range from…
  ○ Shallow (or physical) analysis
  § What it looks like
  ○ Deep (or semantic) analysis
  Meaning and importance of information

Question 22

what are the 2 main assumptions of craik and lockhart’s levels of processing model?

Answer 22

1. Level/depth effects memorability
2. Deeper levels of analysis produce more elaborate, longer lasting and stronger memory traces

Question 23

what did Craik and Tulvig study?

Answer 23

• Incidental learning
  ○ Participants not told there would be a memory test
  § Looked at implicit learning
• Three tasks
  a. Shallow-graphemic= word upper/ lowercase?
• Harder to remember
  b. Intermediate-phonemic= word rhymes with target?
  c. Deep-semantic= word fits blank in sentence?
• Most often remembered by participants
• Assessed recognition memory
  ○ Which words have previously been seen.
  Performance 3x higher with deep than with shallow processing

Question 24

what was morris et al’s (1977) method?

Answer 24

• Two learning tasks
  
  1. Shallow= rhyme
  2. Deep= semantic
• Two recognition memory tests
  
  1. Standard = select list words from non-list words
     
     2. Rhyme=select words rhyming with list words

Question 25

what is morris et al’s (1977) results?

Answer 25

• Standard recognition test
  ○ Usual superiority for deep processing
  ○ Supremacy for deeply processed test.
• Rhyme recognition test
  ○ Superiority for shallow processing (opposite to levels of processing account!)
• Memory depends on the requirements of the memory test
  ○ Not only about how you encode information but also how you retrieve it.
  ○ Successful retrieval requires that processing at time of learning is relevant to the demands of the memory test

Question 26

what is godden & baddeley (1975) study?

Answer 26

• The same effect is demonstrated in a classic experiment on context-dependent memory asking participants to learn a list of words either on dry land or under water.
• Subsequent recall was better when the learning and recall environment
  were the same compared to when the environment changed.
• The environment in which information is learned, is best recalled when in the same environment
  ○ E.g.: learning information in an exam hall would make recall more likely if the test was in an exam hall
  Similar for noise when learning.

Question 27

what is working memory?

Answer 27

• Short-term memory used when performing complex tasks
  ○ Undertake various processes and store information at same time
  ○ Perform tasks not explicitly memory tasks (e.g. mental arithmetic)
• When trying to work out an equation in head you don’t remember the answer through retrieval but rather how to work it out.
• Short-term memory store replaced by working memory
  Better account of what is actually happening in that part of your memory.

Question 28

what is Baddeley et al’s (2012) working memory model?

Answer 28

• All components have limited capacity and can work independently
  ○ Larger amount of information being remembered in comparison to other memory models.
• If two tasks use same component, they cannot be performed together successfully
  ○ E.g.: reading two books at the same time.
• If two tasks use different components, possible to perform both equally well
  E.g.: listening to a podcast and drawing a picture
• consists of the central executive, visuo-spatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, phonological store, long-term memory.

Question 29

what is the central executive?

Answer 29

• Resembles attentional system
• Most important and versatile component
  ○ System that is in charge of allocating resources to other systems.
  ○ Whether info needs to enter long term memory.
• Associated with several executive * processes
  ○ Focus attention/concentration
  
  • On certain aspects of the task.
    ○ Dividing attention between tasks
  • Decide the attention
    ○ Switching attention between tasks
  • When going from one to another
    ○ Interfacing with long-term memory
  • Retrieve info that we already have to achieve a certain goal.
  • Processes that organise and coordinate functioning of cognitive system to achieve current goals

Question 30

what is the phonological store?

Answer 30

• Consists of two components
  
  1. Phonological store= speech perception
  2. Articulatory loop= speech production (or rehearsal mental and verbal)
     Secondary store

Question 31

what is the phonological similarity effect?

Answer 31

○ Poor recall for similar sounding items than dissimilar ones
* Confuse words easily if they are similar compared to if they are different as it changes the ability to recall the words.
○ Supports notion that there is a separate phonological store and articulatory loop…the role of articulatory suppression
* Auditory information has direct access to phonological store.
* To an extent deals with visual information but only once it has been transferred to words.
E.g.: sounding words out.
* Articulatory suppression prevents rehearsal
○ Using voice already means its harder to use rehearsal.
* Modality dissociation
○ Auditory list = similarity effect still present
* If someone reading the list of words.
* If hearing the letters, they recall it better.
□ If info is already auditory, has nothing to disrupt.
○ Visual list = similarity effect abolished!
Has an affect by disrupting process of visual translation to auditory as it needs more processing to be complete.

Question 32

what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 32

• Storage and manipulation of visual patterns and spatial movement
  ○ Remembering what something is (visual)
  ○ Remembering where something is (spatial)
• Logie (1995)
• Consists of two components
  ○ Visual cache = stores information about visual form/colour (appearance)
  ○ inner scribe = processes spatial and movement information (watching something move)
  
  • Single system combining both visual and spatial inputs or separate systems?
    ○ Or is it two separate systems that operate independently from each other.
  • Smith & Jonides (1997)
    ○ Two stimuli presented, followed by probe
    ○ Decide if probe in (i) same location (spatial), or (ii) same form (visual) as one of the presented stimuli
    * Visual recognition of the item and spatial recognition assessed separately.

Question 33

what is smith & jondies (1997) study on the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 33

• Smith & Jonides (1997)
  ○ Stimuli identical in both tasks
  ○ But different brain activity (PET)
  
  1. Right hemisphere = spatial task
  2. Left hemisphere = visual task
• Suggests there are two separate systems processing visual and spatial inputs?
  Are different and process/ retrieve independently.

Question 34

what is the eposodic buffer?

Answer 34

• Holds integrated information (or chunks) about episodes/events in multidimensional code
  ○ Between the 3 previously discussed systems.
  ○ Combines visual, auditory, spatial, etc. information
  * Information into one multidimensional code. (a single unit of information)
  
  • A buffer between other slave systems
    ○ Storage of verbal information from phonological loop
    ○ Storage of visual/spatial information from visuo-spatial sketchpad
    * Allows them to be integrated together.
  • Debate whether central executive controls access to the buffer
    Is undecided on its link.

Question 35

what is darling et al’s (2017) working memory model?

Answer 35

• uses baddeley et al’s structure (central executive, eposodic buffer, visuo-spatial sketchpad, phonological store) and added more compnenets.
• shows how each compnonet links to sections of life.
• extra components= visuo-spatial sketchpad (visual, haptic & spatial), lead to visual semantics
• central executive= smell and taste
• eposodic buffer= eposodic long-term memory
• phonological store= speec, lipreading, music, articulatory loop and is interested with language.

Question 36

what sores information in a multi-dimensional code?

Answer 36

the episodic buffer

Question 37

where is speech based information stored?

Answer 37

the phonological store

Question 38

what resembles attention and deals with cognitively demanding tasks?

Answer 38

the central exceutive

Question 39

what stores visual and spatial information?

Answer 39

the visuo-spatial sketchpad