exam 1
Working Memory Baddeley & Hitch 1974:
(1) Central Executive ← → leads to visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, and the phonological loop (which contains the articulatory control system and the phonological store). These three lead to ← → Long term memory
Modal Model of Memory Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968:
(1) Environmental input → (2) Sensory Stores (visual, auditory) → (3) Short term store (STS): (Control Process: rehearsal, coding, decision, retrieval strategies) → ← (4) Long term store (LTS): permanent, memory store. The modal model of memory was named the modal model because it was representative of many similar models of the operation of human memory that were proposed at the time. This was the first model in the field of psychology that accounted for a lot of different phenomenon.
What are examples of tasks designed to test WM (there are several)?
(1) Grammatical Reasoning Task: Up to eight digits. Error rate consistent. Response times increased. One of the first working memory span tasks developed by Baddeley is the grammatical reasoning task. Reasoning test, something manipulated.. A follow b true or false, false. They have to make a judgement, the number of errors during that task is very few (orange line). The purple line - this is where they place demand on working memory, as the number of digits people have to remember increases, reasoning time to say true or false increases as well, * an increase in reaction time means people are responding slower *, the increase in digit load is increasing demand on working memory meaning you have less resources for the reasoning task, you only have a limited attention.
What are the problems in effectiveness of the phonological similarity effect?
(1) Longer words: Longer words take longer to rehearse and allow faster decay of memory - word length effect. (2) Multiple learning trials: repeated exposure to a list will result in learning/remembering more items. (3) Semantic meaning: prior associations with a word can make it easier to remember
What does memory span require as by Jacob?
(1) Remembering what the items are, and (2) remembering the order in which they were presented. Measured the digit span - correctly remembering the order of a string of numbers, which reflects short-term and working memory.
Where does LTM fit into the new model created by Baddeley & HItch in 1974?
(1) Word span: variations in performance, remember words in the correct order, average is 5-6 words, but some can remember 15. (2) Digit span: Combine VSSP & PL, visual and phonological processing, not just visual. (3) Imagery: a mnemonic that people often use to help them remember things, if you can create an image it is easier to remember the list of words
What is articulatory suppression?
Articulatory suppression: A technique for disrupting verbal rehearsal by requiring participants to repeat a spoken item, a word. Ex: irrelevant speech effect: constantly saying "Duh", and thus being unable to refresh the memory trace by subvocally pronouncing/rehearsing the material - adding a distraction, putting a demand on working memory, saying duh while a list of numbers is being read to you
What factor affects the recency effect?
Availability (Retrieval)
What is the phonological similarity effect (Baddeley 1966)?
Baddeley - Phonological Similarity Effect: The tendency for recall of verbal material to decrease when the material is similar in sound. Occurs at retrieval, when information is read from the short term memory trace, and similar items have fewer distinguishing features thus are more likely to be confused. Can be affected by length of words and repeated learning trials.
Study of interference in the visuospatial sketchpad, Brooks 1968:
Brooks (1968) - 2 (task: visuospatial or verbal) x 2 (mode of responding: pointing or verbal). Categorize words in sentence. Auditory presentation. - E.g., "a bird in the hand is not in the bush". A 2 by 2 design - only 3 manipulated conditions - manipulated: the combination of the type of tasks participants are going to be asked to do & how they respond to the task. One task is visual spatial task - the other is a verbal task. Responding either yes or no. Visual task - shown this image "F", it goes away, have to retrace the image, identify when you have to make a right turn yes or no. Verbal Task: a bird in the hand is not in the bush, is each word a noun yes or no. Two modes of responding: Verbal: say "YES" or "NO" aloud OR Visuo-spatial: point to YES or NO. Conclusion: the group that had to point yes or no on a piece of paper took longer than those that just had to say yes or no - F task
What is chunking?
By miller. Chunks are an integrated piece of information. The process of combining a number of items into a single chunk typically on the basis of long-term memory. Said you can remember 7 +/- 2 chunks. Chunking increases the short-term memory capacity.
What does the central executive in the Baddeley & Hitch (1974) working memory model contain?
Central Executive CEO - in charge. Norman & Shallice (1986) - assumed two modes of control: one is automatic (1) Attentional controller -automatic and one is (2) attentionally limited. Supervisory attentional system (SAS)- Attentional control. When automatic conflict resolution is not possible, the SAS comes in to intervene, seeking a solution. The central executive focuses attention (trying to study), creates planning (strategies), and monitors ongoing processes (do I need to know this, can I ignore this)
What did the Robbins et al 1996 study show about the effects of the central executive system?
Central Executive: Attentional Focus & Planning Study. Chess. Robbins et al (1996). Effects of recall of chess positions, designed to affect each component of the Baddeley and Hitch working memory model with a task of articulatory suppression (to disrupt the phonological loop), tapping (to disrupt the spatial sketchpad), and random number generation (an attentionally demanding task, having to create a random stream of numbers). Tapping & random # generation equally impaired memory, while the articulatory suppression had no effect. The same result was found when the task was changed from remembering the chess positions (a central executive attentional focus process) to choosing the best next move (a central executive planning process).
What did the Strayer and Johnston 2001 study show about the central executive system?
Central Executive: Divided Attention - Strayer & Johnston (2001). Differences in response time, meaning performance. A single task condition and a dual task condition - early driving simulator. People made more mistakes in the dual task condition
What is in the new Baddeley 2000 Working Memory Model?
Central executive at the top with arrows point to the (1) visuospatial sketchpad, (2) episodic buffer, and (3) the phonological loop. Arrows connect each of these to the central executive at the top, but not to each other. (1) the visuospatial sketchpad is connected with arrows to the (A) visual semantics. (2) The episodic buffer is connected with arrows to the (B) Episodic LTM. The (3) phonological loop is connected with arrows to (C) language. A, B, and C are all connected with arrows to each other as well. Binding: "Mental workspace". Occurs regardless of CE disruption. Information was retrieved from the episodic buffer through conscious awareness, this conscious awareness serves the function of pulling together separate streams of information from various sense and binding them into perceived objects and scenes.
What happened to Clive Wearing?
Clive developed an infection that crossed the brain barrier. He developed anterograde amnesia (where you can't remember information from the past), and was unable to make new memories. It was interesting however because he could still play and conduct music which suggested that memory is not a single system since parts of his memory remained.
What did Conrad's (1964) research show about short term memory?
Conrad: Phonological coding in STM. Conrad's study presented consonant letters for recall. Noticed that most errors in recall resulted from consonants that phonologically sounded similiar such as P and V rather than letters that looked similar such as P and R despite the letters being presented visually. Memory was lower when consonants sound similar ex: C,V, D, P, B, T rather than look similiar X/V, P/R, or even random letters. Conrad concluded that the short term memory store must rely on acoustic code, and fades rapidly resulting in forgetting, and this acoustic code causes errors with recall for phonologically similar items.
What is Cowan's 1999 embedded process model?
Cowan (1999) - Embedded processes model: "Cognitive processes that retain information in an unusually accessible state". Working memory depends on activation that takes place within LTM, and is controlled by attentional processes. Activation is temporary and decays unless maintained either through active verbal rehearsal or continued attention. Subset of info in LTM in heightened state of activation
What is the term coined by Craik and Lockhart, the levels of processing?
Craik and Lockhart (1972): Levels of processing. Learning depends on the way in which material is processed, rather than time. Items that are more deeply processed will be better remembered.
What is wrong with the assumption of the modal model of memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968) that holding information long enough will result in learning?
Craik and Lockhart (1972): Levels of processing. One problem with the modal model: assuming that simply holding items in the short term store for long enough would guarantee learning. Craik & Lockhart, however, proposed the levels of processing: learning depends on the way in which material is processed, rather than time. Items that are more deeply processed will be better remembered. Ex: studying more for a test but doing worse than someone else. Craik & Lockhart demonstrated that when people engaged in shallow processing (pattern recognition) they had worse memory, just because you do something longer doesn't mean you remember more
What did Daneman & Carpenter 1980 find with their study on working memory span?
Daneman & Carpenter (1980) - Reading Span - one of first working memory span tasks developed. Interested in the possible role of working memory in language comprehension. Read a series of sentences out loud, and recall the last word of each. This working memory task as able to predict the prose comprehension capacity. Working memory span - the ability to remember just the last word correlates with: predicted comprehension, reasoning ability, fluid intelligence, obeying complex instructions, taking notes, VSAT scores, and listening span
What did Daneman & Merikle find when reviewing studies?
Daneman & Merikle (1996) Reviewed studies of working memory span and global comprehension were correlated as well as language processing, these correlations were higher than standard verbal short term memory tasks.
What are the differences of Cowan's 1999 embedded process model and Baddeley's model?
Differences Compared to Baddeley & Hitch's Models: (1) Temporary Activation - meaning that for moment to moment, what is highly accessible can change depending on what we choose to focus on. (2) Decays unless Maintained. (3) Memory is Multidimensional. (4) Concerned with "Capacity" - how much capacity do people have: Attentional focus - how do you maintain this information in LTM
What was added to the Baddeley 2000 Working Memory Model?
Episodic Buffer - Baddeley (2000) Working Memory Model. Theory is adapting based on new findings. Episodic buffer- temporary storage, can hold 3-4 chunks of information, can be multidimensional, this may be where we transform visual items into auditory. Assumptions: Holds about 4 chunks. Multidimensional memory - processing visual and auditory things at the same time. Retrieval through conscious awareness. So the episodic buffer was added from the old Baddeley model
What is the relationship between the Baddeley and Hitch 1974 model and the Cowan 1999, 2005 model?
Episodic buffer: (1)Three-component model - Baddeley & Hitch, 1974. (2) Attentionally focused model Cowan, 1999, 2005. The concept of the episodic buffer has proved useful. It bridges the gap between the multicomponent Baddeley and Hitch 1974 model with its emphasis on storage, and the more attentionally focused model of Cowan 1999, 2005. I doing so, it has emphasized the important question of how working memory and LTM interact.
What is episodic memory?
Episodic memory: A system that is assumed to underpin the capacity to remember specific events. Events and episodes in life.
What is explicit (declarative) memory?
Explicit memory: Memory that is open to intentional retrieval, whether based on recollecting personal events (episodic memory) or facts (semantic memory). Explicit memory is divided into two categories (semantic and episodic)
What was the Gathercole & Baddeley 1990 study and what results did it show?
Gathercole & Baddeley (1990). A= children with a specific language impairment. B= children of the same age. C = children matched for language level (6 year olds). Used a nonword repetition test: participants hear and attempt to repeat back nonwords that gradually increase in length (ballop or woogalamic). Looking at children with language impairments (A), children the same age (B), and children learning language ( C) so maybe 4th graders reading at a 2cd grader level if that's the age we're studying. Conclusion: Longer words take longer to say - as the words get longer, the ability to repeat these words back decreases
What is implicit (nondeclarative) memory?
Implicit memory: Retrieval of information from long term memory through performance rather than explicit conscious recall or recognition. Some form of learning has occurred, but is reflected in performance rather than through remembering ex: riding a bike
What is the individual differences approach?
Individual Differences Approach: A correlational approach, which takes advantage of differences between individuals to explore the structure of the underlying system. Breaking down WM, Tasks tap into these component, Correlate with other tasks
What are the possible individual differences in working memory?
Individuals may differ in working memory - research usually deals with correlation but if someone has a smaller working memory capacity doesn't mean they are unintelligent, could have a fully functional LTM. Multicomponent WM: Support through experimental group differences. ID in WM: Support through correlations
What is the irrelevant speech effect?
Irrelevant speech effect: A tendency for verbal short term memory to be disrupted by concurrent sounds, including both speech and music.
What was the Keppel and Underwood 1962 study and what did it show about short term memory?
Keppel & Underwood 1962: Manipulated the Brown-Peterson task (trigram). Added additional trigrams for people to recall. Trial 1: KQF. Trial 2: KQF MHZ. Trial 3: KQF MHZ CXJ. First, recall was almost perfect, but with each subsequent trial, the amount of correct recall items decreased. Basically, out short term memory duration is very short. Without rehearsal, it can be between 200ms to 30 seconds, possibly 1 minute maximum.
What is the serial position curve and what effects does it have?
Looking at recall for each individual word as a function of where it appears in the list (first in the list, middle of list, end of list).The serial position effect is the tendency for a person to recall the first and last items of a test best, and the middle items worst. 3 distinct phases—primacy, middle, recency. (1) Primacy effect: Recalling the first few items in a sequence better. (2) Recency effect: Recalling the last few items in a sequence better.
What was Craik's 1970 study of the negative recency effect?
Negative Recency - Craik 1970. Given 10 lists, 15 words each. Immediate free recall (IFR) after each list. Recall as many words as you can directly after hearing the list. After recall of the last list, a break then a surprise "final free recall" (FFR) test. (1) Positive recency in IFR but (2) negative recency in FFR. (1) In the IFR test, you have a strong U-shape, because you can recall the recent words before you forget them, the last few words were remembered well despite having the least amount of rehearsal. (2) In the FFR test, there is not a negative slope, and a negative recency effect. We are no longer seeing a recency effect we are seeing the opposite,a negative recency effect, where the most recent words were recalled less than in immediate recall. Why? Because you spend less time rehearsing the most recent words, therefore, these words never transfer to long term memory because they were not rehearsed as much as the other words.
What does nonword repetition depend on an correlate with?
Nonword repetition depends on verbal STM and correlates with: speech perception, attention, and phonological awareness: the ability to reflect on spoken stimuli and report on different aspects (such as rhyme), and to manipulate incoming items. Ability to switch initial sounds of these words: Dear-queen become queer-dean which correlates highly with reading skills. A task of this complexity depends on both the phonological and executive components or working memory.
What was shown about the phonological similarity effect from Baddeley in 1966 and Papgano & Vallar in 1992?
Phonological Similarity Effect - Baddeley 1966. Presented word lists testing the phonological similarity effect (can, man...) vs semantic similarity (big, wide, large, tall). Concluded that phonological similarity leads to decreased recall while similarity of meaning (semantic) has little effect. The more similar words sounded, the easier they are to be confused in STM, and the greater the difficulty is for recall. Auditory-presented words (Baddeley, 1966) (2) Papagno & Vallar (1992). Manipulated: Word-length effect and phonological similarity. *Foreign language responses affected by both. Overloading phonological loop - asking too much too fast
What is the phonological loop - Baddeley & HItch 1974?
Phonological loop - Baddeley & Hitch 1974 - The phonological loop is the component of the B&H model responsible for the temporary storage of speech like information. It has two components: a short term store (limited in capacity) and an articulatory rehearsal process. Ex: Digit span - can only remember about 7 items, why? As the number of items increase, the time to rehearse them all will be greater, and the chance of items fading before they are refreshed increases.
What does the phonological loop in the Baddeley & Hitch (1974) working memory model contain?
Phonological loop: (1) phonological store which decays in 1-2 sec. (2) articulatory control process (rehearsal & recoding)
What are the problems identified with the modal model of memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968)?
Problems with the modal model of memory: (1) The flow of information from STM to LTM. If STM leads to LTM, then wouldn't a disruption in short term memory lead to a disruption in long term memory? But that's not the case for those with a poor STM but a fully functioning LTM. Ex: amnesiacs with poor STM (1-2 items) but an intact LTM, cab drivers, great LTM memorizing thousands of streets and landmarks. (2) Long term recency effect: Would expect for the last few items to be worst remembered after a period of time, when it is possible that you can remember the last few items better over time, ex: ability for rugby players to recall members of the team they played, can recall the most recent members best. (3) Amount of rehearsal is not always associated with a transfer to LTM. Even though there seems to be a strong relationship between rehearsal and long term memory, just because you rehearse something a lot it doesn't mean you WILL remember that information better. Ex: List of words, critical letter, remember last word with that letter. Recall words that start with B after a list of random words. Results: 12 intervening items: 23% recall, 8 intervening items: 22% recall. 12 words after the critical letter means there are 12 times to rehearse, therefore that word should have been remembered better because there is more time to rehearse, but that doesn't occur. Just because something is rehearsed a lot in STM, doesn't mean it will be transferred to LTM.
What was the Rundus & Atkinson 1970 study and what did it conclude about serial position recall?
Rundus & Atkinson (1970) - Recorded Rehearsals. Study 20 item lists, each word presented for 5 seconds. Serial position: Items at beginning of list received the most rehearsal = primacy, because there was the most amount of time to rehearse these items. Items at end of list received few rehearsals = recency. The most number of rehearsals were the first couple of words, which were recalled well. The least number of rehearsals were the last few words, which were also recalled well because they were recent in memory. The words in the middle that weren't rehearsed as often, and weren't as recent in memory were the least recalled. Showed that the position of a word in a recall list affected the amount of rehearsal and the ability to recall that word.
What were the results of Salame & Baddeley's 1989 STM study?
STM and music: More errors present when music is there, especially with music that includes lyrics whilst reading, called irrelevant speech effect. Found that music interfered with digit recall. Vocal music was more disruptive than instrumental music
Short term memory vs working memory?
STM: Task specific retention of small amounts of information. Working memory: temporary storage of information PLUS a manipulation of information.
What is wrong with the assumption of the modal model of memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968) that LTM depends on STM?
Shallice and Warrington (1970). Patient with defective short term store (digit span 1-2). Should lead to LTM impairment. Was not the case, was a successful taxi driver. Patients with defective SM, but no LTM impairment. Model says if STM messes up, LTM will be impaired too - but not the case.
What is short term memory and how are perceptions of STM different?
Short term memory: Task specific retention of small amounts of information. Performance on a particular type of task involving retention of small amounts of information tested either immediately or after a short delay. Many of the public believe it is remembering over a few hours or days, but psychologists attribute this to long term memory
What are the similarities of Cowan's 1999 embedded process model and Baddeley's model?
Similarities to Baddeley's model (1) Decay (time-based limits), Interference (item-based limits) (2) Place of cognitive work/mental workspace (3) Central executive from B & Hitch model: In charge of allocating, focus, and attention, a lot of the complex processing (4) Subset of info in LTM in heightened state of activation
What kind of process is storage vs working memory?
Storage - implies a passive process. Working memory - implies actively processing information
Working memory span:
Term applied to a range of complex memory tasks in which simultaneous storage and processing is required.
What was the study done by Papagno, Valentine, & Baddeley 1991 and what did the results show about the phonological loop?
Tested articulatory suppression with an irrelevant speech effect on the ability to acquire a foreign language. Irrelevant Speech Effect: "Blah" vs tapping. The irrelevant speech, saying "blah" disrupted foreign language acquisition, but not the native language task. Why? Semantic coding: processing an item in terms of its meaning, hence relating it to other information in long term memory. Upper graph: word pairs in native language "chariot" and "chair" are words participants are familiar with. Lower graph: Italian and Russian word pairs. Italian word paired with Russian word with the Russian word as the foreign language. You see differences in recall based on what type of secondary task people are doing - people can acquire word pairs better during the tapping task than the irrelevant speech task - why? - language activates the phonological loop, and saying a sound like "blah" requires the phonological loop, and doing both at the same time will overpower working memory and disrupt that function
What was the Brown-Peterson task and what did it show about short term memory?
The Brown-Peterson STM Task: A consonant trigram is presented (3 letters) followed by a number. Subject must count backwards by 3s from that number (487) until they receive a prompt to recall the trigram. The delay can range from 3-18 seconds. Conclusion: memory of the consonant trigram declines as the delay time increases. The longer the time, the lower the recall rate. Why? (1) rehearsal: The longer time allowed for rehearsal increases trace decay (2) trace decay: the memory can decay as you are doing the counting task, making it harder to recall the original memory. Information only lasts for a short time in memory.
What is the articulatory control process in the phonological loop presented in the new model created by Baddeley & HItch - 1974?
The articulatory control process *translates* visual information (e.g. a visual word) into a speech-based code (translates visual information, a visual word, into a speech-based code) and *refreshes* a trace, puts information, into the phonological store (offsets decay and controls subvocal rehearsal)
What is the central executive in the new model created by Baddeley & HItch in 1974?
The central executive controls the whole system, it is an attentionally limited system that selects and manipulates material in the substems. Controls allocation of attention, coordinates work of the other two systems.
What is the effect on a serial position curve based upon the length of a list?
The effect of list length on serial position: The recency portion of the curve is unaffected by the length of the list. Ex: The more items on a list causes the performance of the middle words of the serial position curve to be the worst as items increase, however, for the last 4 items on the list, the performance (recency effect) stays the same regardless of list length.
What did Baddeley's 1988 study show about the functions of the phonological loop?
The functions of the phonological loop: (1) Language Comprehension (2) Language Acquisition - Russian-Italian word pairs The phonological loop has evolved to help us learn language. Had PV associate each of 8 Russian words with their equivalent Italian words (native language). Control participants learned all 8 words while PV had not learned one. PV and controls. Her capacity to learn pairs of meaningful words was unimpaired, but she was not able to learn foreign language vocabulary.
What is the phonological loop in the new model created by Baddeley & HItch in 1974?
The phonological loop is assumed to be specialized for holding sequences of acoustic or speech-based items, specializes in processing auditory information. Phonological store decays in 1-2 seconds. Articulatory control process (rehearsal and recoding). Recoding: taking auditory information, and encoding it into something else.
What factors affect the primacy effect?
The primacy effect is affected by: (1) Presentation rate: if we increase the amount of time between each word, then there are 10 seconds blocks for people to rehearse, easier for people to rehearse information. (2) Word frequency: More familiar words are easier to remember than words not presented as often. (3) Imageability: Some words are easier to remember with images. Easy to remember cat but harder to remember the word "because" since there is no image attached to that word. (4)Participants' age: Memory deteriorates with age, can't remember as many items. (5) Physiological states: Sleep deprivation will ruin your memory recall.
What is the visuospatial sketchpad in the new model created by Baddeley & HItch in 1974?
The visuospatial sketchpad contains the visual subsystem (color and shape) and the spatial subsystem (movements in space). The visuospatial sketchpad performs a similar function temporary maintenance for visually and/or spatially encoded items.
What is the problem of serial order of the phonological loop?
There are two problems of serial order of the phonological loop: (1) There is no explanation of how serial information is stored (2) It does not clearly identify what processes are necessary for retrieval from the phonological store. The models developed assume both a phonological store and a separate mechanism for serial order, with similarity influencing retrieval from the store.
What are the changes from the Baddeley & Hitch 1974 model to the new Baddeley 2000 Working Memory Model?
Two major changes: (1) Links to LTM from subsystems - the original model doesn't account for long term memory, which really matters for language processing, ex: those with an impairment in phonological learn. (2) Added episodic buffer
What is binding?
Used to refer to the linking of features into objects (e.g. color red, shape square, into a req square), or of events into coherent episodes.
What does the visuospatial sketchpad in the Baddeley & Hitch (1974) working memory model contain?
Visuo-spatial sketchpad: (1) Visual subsystem - color and shape. (2) Spatial subsystem - movements in space.
What is the effect on a serial position curve based upon a delay or distractor added before recall or words?
When there is a delay between the end of the list and recall, recall drops the longer the delay. The recency effect decreases in this example. So having articulatory suppression for 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or not at all interrupts the verbal rehearsal of information and impairs STM. The recall of the last 4 items (recency effect) decreases more and more the longer the delay is.
What is the word length effect?
Word length effect: A tendency for verbal memory span to decrease when longer words are used. Rehearsal happens in real time, as does trace decay or forgetting. Therefore, longer words take longer to say and allow more decaying of memory to occur. Study: (1) Five monosyllabic words (pot, lark, stick, nut) = performance at 90% recall. (2) Five multi-syllable words (opportunity, refrigerator, tuberculosis, hippopotamus) = performance dropped from 90% to 50% recall.
What is working memory?
Working memory is more than a temporary storage of information (short term memory) because it also includes a manipulation as to allow people to perform complex activities such as reasoning, learning, and comprehension.Working memory is a temporary memory system in which information is maintained and manipulated for a short period of time. Working memory is an active process, so the maintenance of information is active in memory, we try to maintain that information. This allows for complex tasks to be carried out.
What are the changes from the Baddeley 2000 model to the new Baddeley 2012 model?
Baddeley (2000) vs. Baddeley (2012). Still expanding the models. Episodic buffer more central with direct links to each component. Also added in other senses - but all speculative
What is classical conditioning?
Conditioning: A learning procedure whereby a neutral stimulus (bell) that is paired repeatedly with a response evoking stimulus (meat powder) will come to evoke that response (salivation)
What did Ebbinghaus find?
Ebbinghaus is the founder of scientific research on memory, he conducted experiments on himself with nonsense syllables. He concluded that forgetting happens immediately, with 50% loss of memory of words in less than an hour.
What is echoic memory?
Echoic: Auditory sensory memory
What are the three stages of memory?
Encoding, storage, retrieval. Three stages in memory - and testing them. Typical (long-term) memory experiment: Encoding (study list of words) → storage → retrieval (write down all the words you can remember)
What is free recall?
Free recall: A method whereby participants are presented with a sequence of items which they are subsequently required to recall in any order they wish.
What is iconic memory?
Iconic memory: the brief storage of visual information
What is long term memory?
Long term memory: A system assumed to underpin the capacity to store information over long periods of time.
Difference in attributes of STM and LTM:
Maintenance of information - STM: rehearsal, LTM: organization. Format of information - STM: acoustic, LTM: semantic (meaning or logic). Capacity - STM: 7 +/- 2 chunks, LTM: No limit, Duration of information - STM: up to 1 minute, LTM: many years, Retrieval - STM: automatic, LTM: searching process
Digit span:
Maximum number of sequentially presented digits that can reliably be recalled in the correct order.
What does it mean that memory is theoretical?
Memory can be sought, not bought. You can seek it but it is just a hypothetical construct.
What did Miller conclude about memory span?
Memory span is not limited by the number of items to be recalled, but by the number of chunks. Chunking: The process of combining a number of items into a single chunk typically on the basis of long-term memory. Said you can remember 7 +/- 2 chunks.
What was the new model created by Baddeley & HItch in 1974?
New model: Working Memory - Baddeley & Hitch 1974. Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad ← → Central Executive ← → Phonological Loop. The model has 3 components: The phonological loop is assumed to be specialized for holding sequences of acoustic or speech-based items. The visuospatial sketchpad contains the visual subsystem (color and shape) and the spatial subsystem (movements in space). The visuospatial sketchpad performs a similar function temporary maintenance for visually and/or spatially encoded items. And the central executive controls the whole system, it is an attentionally limited system that selects and manipulates material in the substems.
What is a nonword repetition test?
Nonword Repetition Test: A test whereby participants hear and attempt to repeat back nonwords that gradually increase in length (ballop or woogalamic)
What did the research of Baddeley in 1966 find about phonological vs semantic similarity?
Presented word lists testing the phonological similarity effect (can, man...) vs semantic similarity (big, wide, large, tall). Concluded that phonological similarity leads to decreased recall while similarity of meaning (semantic) has little effect. The more similar words sounded, the easier they are to be confused in STM, and the greater the difficulty is for recall.
What is the primacy effect?
Primacy effect: items at the *beginning* of the list are recalled well on a free recall test. The first couple of items in a list tend to be better recalled.
What is priming?
Priming: The process whereby presentation of an item influences the processing of a subsequent item, either making it easier to process (positive priming) or more difficult (negative priming)
What is procedural memory?
Procedural memory: knowing how to do things, motor skills
What is the recency effect?
Recency effect: items at the *end* of the list are recalled well on a free recall test. The last couple of items in a list are recalled well. The recency effect is more pronounced than the primacy effect.
What is reductionism?
Reductionism is the view that all scientific explanations should aim to be based on a lower level of analysis: Social psych, to cognitive, to physiological... Not a good model.
What is semantic coding?
Semantic coding is processing an item in terms of its meaning, hence relating it to other information in long term memory.
What is semantic memory?
Semantic memory: A system that is assumed to store accumulative knowledge of the world. Knowledge of the world.
What is sensory memory?
Sensory memory: It is the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimuli have ended.seeing a sparkler for a few seconds in the air, it lingers in memory. This happened because the perceptual system stores the visual information long enough to bridge the gap between static images
Why doesn't the delay or distraction decrease the primacy effect like it does the recency effect?
Why doesn't the delay eliminate primacy effect? The beginning of the list receive extra rehearsals (which increases transfer into LTM).
How does working memory play into the problems of the modal model of memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968)?
Working memory was an attempt to understand the STM and LTM relationship. Working memory is an attempt to bridge the gap between short term and long term. Working memory is a temporary memory system in which information is maintained and manipulated for a short period of time. Digit span (STM task) + Other complex tasks.
