Ch. 5 Quiz

Describe two findings that led Baddeley to begin considering alternatives to the modal model.

1. the fact that you can hold a few #s in mind when doing another task i.e. reading-the modal model says STM is just for holding and retrieving info, not complicated tasks/cognition 2. Shepard and Metzler found participants used mental rotation of objects to determine if a test object (which was rotated) was the same or diff than the sample object.--led to Baddeley coming up w/ visuospatial sketch pad. the mental rotation is more complex than the modal model allowed for w/ STM

What is the function of the prefrontal cortex? What is evidence for this function?

part of frontal lobe responsible for processing incoming visual/auditory info and executive control evidence: Funahashi's delayed response task for monkeys: monkeys see food in well 1 or 2 and then both are covered and a screen comes down and up and monkeys have to choose which well has food. when PFC removed, they just guess but perform well w/ PFC

Describe the central executive (and experimental evidence).

what coordinates activity of PL and VSP by focusing/dividing/switching attention and suppressing irrelevant info. probably relies on frontal lobe 1. perseveration: ppl w/ frontal lobe damage will do this (repeating same action even if it's not achieving desired goal)-i.e. can follow instructions but when instructions change they keep doing the original thing 2. individual differences (Vogue et. al): high/low capacity WM groups who were shown either a simple (red bars) or complex (red+blue) stim. after seeing a cue and had to determine if red bars changed orientation. found that high capacity part. were better at ignoring distractors (blue) bc their CE worked better

Information remains in sensory memory for A. seconds or a fraction of a second. B. as long as it is rehearsed. C. 1-3 minutes. D. 15-30 seconds.

A

Models designed to explain mental functioning are constantly refined and modified to explain new results. Which of the following exemplifies this concept based on the results presented in your text? A. Replacing the STM component of the modal model with working memory B. Replacing the sensory memory component of the modal model with the episodic buffer C. Replacing the STM component of the modal model with iconic memory D. Replacing the sensory memory component of the modal model with working memory

A

It is easier to perform two tasks at the same time if A. the central executive is deactivated during the dual task time period B. both are handled by the phonological loop. C. one is handled by the sketch pad and one is handled by the phonological loop. D. both are handled by the sketch pad.

C

Describe Luck and Vogel's change detection experiment. What is the capacity of STM according to the results of this experiment?

Luck and Vogel presented participants with either a simple display containing 1-3 squares or a complex display with 4 or more squares. Then they see another display and have to indicate if it is the same or diff than original display. Participants performed worse w/ 4+ squares which led Luck and Vogel to conclude we can hold 4 items in STM. However, items can vary in complexity, so 4 simple items are not the same as 4 complex items which may change capacity of STM

Is memory lost from STM by decay or by interference? Be sure you understand the Brown and Peterson experiment and Keppel and Underwood's interpretation of it. What is the time span of STM?

Peterson: hear 3 letters then a # and have to count backwards by 3 from that # (interpolated activity). then after diff delay (3-18sec) have to recall letters. 3s-80% recalled, 18s-12% recalled. they thought this was bc info was decaying after time. Keppel and Underwood said this was actually bc of (proactive) interference, bc earlier trials interfered with later trials and caused a decrease in performance. time span: 15-20 sec

What are the differences between STM and working memory?

STM: just holding info for short time, and where info from LTM goes when you recall it; a single component WM: processing/manipulating info that occurs during complex cognition/active processes; multiple components

What is the episodic buffer? Why was it proposed, and what are its functions?

a backup store (increases capacity and duration) that communicates w/ LTM/WM components. i.e. pulling info from prior k and processing from central executive proposed bc OG model didn't account for how you can hold large amounts of info when chunking into meaningful info/the relationship to LTM

Describe Baddeley's three-component model of working memory.

called WM a ltd capacity system for temporary storage/manipulation of info for complex tasks and says it consists of phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive which controls the PL and VSP

Describe the visuospatial sketch pad (and experimental evidence).

holds visual/spatial info consists of visual cache (temp. stores visual info from perceptual XP and info abt form/color/some spatial info for what we perceive) and inner scribe (refreshes stored info in VSP and briefly stores spatial rel. assoc. w/ bodily movement) 1. mental rotation (Shepard/Metzler): mentally rotating object to determine if it was the same as OG object displayed 2. visuospatial interference (Brooks): visualizing "F" and going around saying if corners are inside or outside. its easier to respond verbally than to point at "in" or "out" bc the task of seeing words/pointing and of visualizing F are similar

Describe Atkinson and Shiffrin's modal model of memory both in terms of its structure (the boxes connected by arrows) and the control processes. Then describe how each part of the model comes into play when you decide you want to order pizza but can't remember the pizzeria's phone number.

input goes to sensory memory (fraction of sec, iconic/echoic mem) then to STM (5-7 items 15-20sec) unless it is rehearsed (ctrl process). info in STM goes to LTM (lots of info for long time) if rehearsed. you recall info from LTM back to STM to give output you look up the number online. all info on screen enters sensory mem. focus on #. # enters STM. rehearse # to keep in STM while dialing (output). you want to memorize # so you don't have to look it up again, so you rehearse more to get it to LTM. next time you order, you retrieve # from LTM to STM and remember it

Describe sensory memory and Sperling's experiment in which he briefly flashed an array of letters to measure the capacity and duration of sensory memory.

sensory mem holds lots of info for a fraction of a second (decays v quickly); high fidelity Sperling found this by flashing letters briefly on screen ~whole report-had to report all letters they remembered (4.5/12) ~partial report-report one row indicated by a tone (3.3/4) ~delayed partial report-report one row and there is a delay before tone indicates which row (1/4)-->sens mem fades after a second

Peterson and Peterson studied how well participants can remember groups of three letters (like BRT, QSD) after various delays. They found that participants remembered an average of 80 percent of the groups after 3 seconds but only 10 percent after 18 seconds. They hypothesized that this decrease in performance was due to ______ , but later research showed that it was actually due to _______. A. interference; decay B. priming; interference C. decay; interference D. decay; lack of rehearsal

C

Shanta has frontal lobe damage. She is doing a problem solving task in which she has to choose the red object out of many choices. She can easily complete this repeatedly, but when the experimenter asks her to choose the blue object on a new trial of the task, she continues to choose the red one, even when the experimenter gives her feedback that she is incorrect. Shanta is displaying A. sensory memory B. decay C. perseveration D. agnosia

C

When light from a flashlight is moved quickly back and forth on a wall in a darkened room, it can appear to observers that there is a trail of light moving across the wall, even though physically the light is only in one place at any given time. This experience is an effect of memory that occurs because of A. a visual delay effect. B. echoic memory. C. persistence of vision. D. top-down processing.

C

Working memory differs from short-term memory in that A. short-term memory consists of a number of components. B. short-term memory has unlimited capacity. C. working memory is concerned with both holding and processing information. D. working memory has unlimited capacity.

C

What is chunking? What does it explain?

Chunking is a method of placing smaller bits of info into larger meaningful groups, like words in a sentence or chess pieces mid-play on a board (easy for chess masters-Chase and Simon). It explains how people can remember large amounts of digits (SF remembered 79 digits) It uses LTM to make things meaningful

The episodic buffer directly connects to which two components in Baddeley's model of memory? A. The phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad B. The central executive and the phonological loop C. The phonological loop and long-term memory D. The central executive and long-term memory

D

What does the serial position effect tell us about what items we are most likely to remember in a list and why? How does interpolated activity affect this? What about presenting words more slowly?

items heard at beginning (primacy) and end (recency) primacy--these words get more attn and are rehearsed so more likely to get to LTM recency--rehearse info at the end to hold it in STM interpolated activity is when you do something (like counting backwards) to prevent rehearsal. you lose the recency effect bc you can't rehearse items presenting slowly increases primacy (more likely to get to LTM) but won't affect recency (still holding in STM)

Describe the phonological loop (and experimental evidence),

phonological loop-holds auditory/verbal info consists of phonological store (stores info for few seconds) and articulatory rehearsal process (keeps info from decaying) 1. phonological similarity effect: when you confuse letters that sound alike but don't look alike--shows words are processed in phonological store of PL 2. word length effect: mem for lists of words better for short than long words bc they take less time to rehearse/produce when recalling 3. articulatory suppression: when rehearsal is prevented bc you are doing another task (i.e. trying to remember list of words but repeating an irrelevant word), memory span and phon. similarity decrease, word length effect is eliminated