Working Memory Flashcards
What is working memory?
Tasks where we need to temporarily store information while processing new information while we perform further processing
Examples of working memory
Understanding a spoken language
Performing mental arithmetic involving simple steps
Phone numbers
Conversations
What is the multi modal model of memory? Atkinson and shiffren
Believes that incoming information is held by 2 stores
Attended information is passed to the short term store, unattended information is lost via decay
Short term store capacity reflects digit span (7)
Rehearsed information is encoded in long term store
How is information passed through to the long term store?
Rehearsal
What processes does the short term store perform?
Rehearsal
Encoding
Decisions
Retrieval
What are the 2 sensory stores?
Iconic store - visual
Echoic store - touch, auditory
Evidence for the multi modal model of memory
Patient KF suffered brain damage due to a road accident. He had impaired short term memory for digit span (2 digits) but intact long term memory. Supports separate short term and long term memory systems. However, contradicts the short term system and short term memory system used for both working memory processes as well as storage because patient only had a problem with storage and not processes - these weren’t impaired
What does the multi modal model of memory believe about memory?
It is a processing system as well as a storage
Working memory modal - baddeley and hitch
Proposed a new working memory modal
System of temporary storage systems supporting the real time processes required for completing complex tasks
There are 3 systems - phonological loop, central executive and visuospatial scratch pad
Consists of two limited capacity space systems
The central executive controls these
What are the 3 parts of the working model?
Visuo spatial scratch pad
Central exective
What are the two limited capacity slave systems?
Phonological which stores speech information
Visuo spatial sketch pad which stores spatial and visual information
What is the phonological loop?
Processing verbal information (holding words in memory as we process what someone is saying to us, or as we prepare to say something)
Consists of 2 parts
What type of information does the phonological store access?
Auditory information has direct access and is maintained through rehearsal
Verbal information (writing) has indirect access via articulatory rehearsal - doesn’t go straight in, have to write it down, say it out loud and rehearse it for it to go in to long term memory
What is the process of rehearsal called?
Articulatory rehearsal - converts visual information (writing) to auditory information
Maintains auditory information via rehearsal
Evidence for the phonological store
Phonological similarity effect
Irrelevant speech effect
Word length effect
Articulatory suppression
Phonological similarity effect
Memory for phonologically similar consonants or words is inferior for phonological dissimilar words
This shows that information is stored phonologically - effect occurs for both auditory and visual presentation of stimuli, showing that information is converted to a phonological code for storage
Irrelevant speech effect
Memory for visually presented consonants or digits is impaired by the simultaneous presented of speech
Shows that speech and visually presented digits are using the same system - even though showed visually, can’t not process them, shows they were converted to phonological code
Word length effect
Memory for short syllables is better than memory for long
Shows articulatory rehearsal has a limited capacity - around 2 seconds - it is a piece of ribbon, can only remember a certain amount, only remember a small amount of long words
Memory span is also linked to speech rate - the quicker we vocalise items, the more we can rehearse within 2 seconds
Articulatory suppression
Memory is impaired when participants required to simultaneously repeat a word out loud and the word length disappears
This shows that memory can be impacted when we prevent rehearsal
Phonological similarity effect also disappears when ppts repeat a word out loud simultaneously- shows visual stimuli must be rehearsed to be converted to phonological code
Visuo spatial sketch pad
Dual tasks performed at the same time can be used to disassociate separate processing systems - if using different systems, memory shouldn’t be impaired
Evidence - digit span impaired by a verbal, but not a visual secondary task, visual span impaired by a visual but not a verbal secondary task. Shows separate systems for verbal and visual memory
Evidence for the visuo spatial sketch pad
Corsi block tapping task
Phillips matrix task
Corsi block tapping task
Experimenter taps out a sequence on 9 randomly arranged blocks, which the participant then copies
Spatial memory declines with the sequence size - measures spatial memory span
Shows a limited capacity system for storing spatial information
Phillips matrix task
Participants recall locations of a pattern of coloured cells in a grid
Visual memory declines with number of cells that a participant has to remember and can be used to measure visual memory span
Shows a limited capacity storage for visual information
Visuo sketchpad further evidence
Some patients have impaired spatial span but intact visual span and other patients have impaired visual span and intact spatial span - shows separate systems
Patient 1 - can do corsi but not Phillip matrix and vice Versa
What is the central executive?
A control system: Focus attention Divide attention among tasks Switch attention from one task to another Interface with long term memory
Evidence for the central executive comes from observations that dual tasks show impaired performance compared to single tasks
Problems with the working memory modal
Articulatory suppression reduces but doesn’t eliminate digit span for visual stimuli - must be being stored somewhere
Some amnesiacs show immediate recall for complex information, beyond limited capacity of existing systems (eg prose)
It is unclear how information from different modalities and from long term memory is bound and stored
It is unclear how rehearsal operates outside of articulatory rehearsal
Episodic buffer
The model of working memory adapted to include episodic buffer - limited capacity storage for chunks or episodes
Integrates information from different modalities and longer term memory - combines the information
