Working memory Flashcards
What is the modal model?
The original theory surrounding working memory. The idea that items must be rehearsed in the STM in order to transfer into the LTM.
Describe the serial position effect (SPE).
Primacy - the first few items in a sequence are remembered well as they are rehearsed more.
Recency - The last few items are remembered well because they are still being rehearsed.
Middle - these items are lost as they are neither rehearsed or being rehearsed.
What were Shallice and Wallington (1970) able to show about the relationship between STM and LTM?
They wondered how patients with an impairment to their STM could still function normally with no LTM impairments.
= The short term memory cannot be a gateway for the STM - a flaw in the modal model.
What did Shalice and Wallington (1970) hypothesis from their findings?
Items are easier remembered when in isolation - the SPE may provide an explanation for this - items at the beginning and end are in isolation but those in the middle are not and are therefore lost.
What assumption did Baddeley and Hitch (1974) make?
That the STM is useful for other cognitive tasks, not just as a gateway to the LTM.
Working memory is a conglomeration of different sub-systems.
What general assumptions are made about working memory, based on Baddeley and Hitch’s original hypothesis?
- Each component of the working memory has a limited capacity
- if the same component is used by different tasks then the task is unable to be completed or performed successfully.
- eg of components - visual or auditory
What is the phonological loop?
A component of working memory.
Holds speech (verbal) based information for up to 2 seconds.
There is a rehearsal mechanism where infor can be rehearsed and retraced by the articulatory control process (ACP).
(inner ear)
What is the articulatory control process (ACP)?
`(inner voice)
Is used to rehearse and store verbal information from the phonological loop.
What evidence is there to support Baddeley and Hitch’s model?
- Phonological similarity effect
- Unattended speech effect
- Word lengths effect
Describe the phonological similarity effect.
Things that sound similar are easier to remember than things that do not sound similar.
eg RHXKWY vs PGTVCD.
Describe the unattended speech effect.
Anything that interupts the phonological store whilst it is actively working will disrupt whatever is there.
eg if someone is whispering in a lecture, this will disrupt your ability to concentrate and you will lose what you had in mind.
Describe the word lengths effect.
Baring in mind the phonological loop only holds for 2 seconds; it is easier to remember many small words or few long ones.
Baddeley et al - found a correlation between digit span and speaking rate - eg chinese people have a higher span because they talk faster - more information is compressed into 2 seconds.
What is the episodic buffer?
This seems to be where all the information comes from all of the other stores and is integrated together.
What is the visuo-spatial sketckpad? (VSS)
- A process which forms and manipulates mental images both visual and spatial information.
- This is different from perception and is more about imagination
- WHAT and WHERE an item is.
What ideas surround the VSS?
It is a surrogate for physical reality.
People can bettern identify components of an image if it can be imagined up close or is ‘large’.
The time we take in our heads to imagine ourselves walking 10 metres carrying bricks will be longer than it takes us to imagine walking 10 metres carrying balloons.
