Cognitive Psychology Module 4: Memory (STM and working)

Baddeley & Hitch's Model of Working Memory Four main components:

1. Phonological loop 2. Central Executive 3. Visuospatial Sketchpad 4. Episodic Buffer

Baddeley & Hitch's Model of Working Memory : Phonological loop Empirical evidence for phonological loop How do you prevent the phonological loop from working

Basically the easier it is to replay the info in your head (rehearse it in a loop) Phonological similarity effect -Letters or words that sound similar are confused Word-length effect -Memory for lists of words is better for short words than for long words -Takes longer to rehearse long words and to produce them during recall How to prevent the phonological loop from working: Articulatory suppression prevents someone from rehearsing items to be remembered An example of articulatory suppression: counting backwards from 3's as mentioned on the slide about the Brown-Peterson task Articulatory suppression: 1. reduces memory span 2. eliminates the word-length effect 3. reduces the phonological similarity effect

Sensory memory: Echoic memory what is it what is it responsible for

Brief sensory memory of the things that we hear Responsible for persistence of sound Echo = something you hear with your ear

Sensory memory: Iconic memory what is it what is it responsible for

Brief sensory memory of the things that we see Responsible for persistence of vision Icon = something you see with your eye

Buildup and Release from proactive interference: What causes the decline in performance in the buildup/release participants were asked to...

Buildup of PI: The decline in performance caused by proactive interference Release from PI: decline in performance is reversed because of a switch in the to-be-remembered information Participants are read a short list of words and are asked to recall them.

Capacity of Short term memory: retention duration

Capacity: 7 + 2 meaningful chunks of information (Miller, 1956) Short-term memory encoding is acoustic.: Evidence for this: it is easier to confuse "G" with "P" (sound alike) than to confuse "R" with "P". Retention duration: about 20 seconds

which better explains the Brown-Peterson results: decay or interference?

Decay: information disappears from memory Interference: some other information "displaces" the to-be-remembered information, making the latter harder to retrieve. So, which better explains the Brown-Peterson results? The counting task has little other purpose than distracting participants. The numbers may displace the string of letters in memory.

Baddeley & Hitch's Model of Working Memory: Central executive what does it do controls ________ except,

Directs the flow of information, choosing which information will be operated on (when and how) Limited capacity Can be considered the "attention controller" Helps us to: focus, divide, and switch attention Controls the suppression of irrelevant information, except... Perseveration:the repetition of a particular response (such as a word, phrase, or gesture) regardless of the absence or cessation of a stimulus.

Echoic memory: how does it compare to iconic memory What is the suffix effect

Echo lasts longer than icon—perhaps as long as 20 seconds Suffix effect: another sound presented after a target sound acts like a "mask", and effectively "covers up" the previously-presented information. Called the "suffix effect" because a suffix is something attached to the end of a word to alter its meaning. Example: "walk" becomes "walked" with the addition of suffix "-ed", and changes the word from the present to the past tense. The sound presented after a target sound acts a suffix and erases our echoic memory for the target sound.

Three Main Processes of Memory:

Encoding, storage, and retrieval

Possible results for Sternberg's experiment: Which patterns of results are actually found for this task? provides evidence that we... why do we do this?

Evidence that we search through our entire STM before responding, even if we find what we are looking for! The search process itself is so rapid and has such momentum that it is hard to stop it once it starts. It is more efficient to just let the search process finish and make one decision at the end, instead of making several decisions in the set.

Possible results for Sternberg's experiment: if we engage in serial exhaustive search for STM... what is a serial exhaustive search how does the size of the memory set effect response time

If we engage in a search where we search through the entire memory set before responding (the official name of this kind of search is "serial exhaustive search"): The greater the memory set size, the longer it will take to respond Even if a match is found, you continue looking through every other item in set. Successful ("Yes") and unsuccessful ("No") searches take the same amount of time.

Possible results for Sternberg's experiment: if we engage in serial self-terminating search for STM... how does the size of the memory set influence effect the response time

If we engage in a search where we stop searching after we find what we are looking for (serial self-terminating search"): The greater the memory set size, the longer it will take to respond (because you have more to search through!) Successful searches (the "Yes" line) take less time than unsuccessful searches (the "No" line). Why? You need to search the entire memory set before saying "No", but you can stop searching once you find what you are looking for.

Retrieval From STM: parallel vs serial Research says we search STM in a_______manner

Imagine that I present a list of music artists to you, and then ask if Fleetwood Mac was one of them. Do you search STM in parallel or serially? If in parallel: compare "Fleetwood Mac" to all artists you know simultaneously If serially: compare "Fleetwood Mac" to the first artist you studied on the list; second artist; third artist; etc. Research says: We search STM in a serial manner—checking each item in the "contents" of STM one at a time. Once search is initiated, it is EXHAUSTIVE, meaning that we search everything in STM, even if we find what we are looking for early!

Baddeley & Hitch's Model of Working Memory: Visuospatial sketchpad What does it do empirical evidence.. what were the participants presented with/asked to do When _______ rotations were required relative to the original, reaction times were _________

Maintains visual material through mental visualization Empirical evidence for visuospatial sketchpad: Shepard and Metzler (1971) Visual imagery: The creation of visual images in the mind in the absence of a physical visual stimulus Participants performed a mental rotation task Presented with an original image, then presented withoptions to select from of rotated shapes. Asked "Which image represents what the original shape would look like if it were rotated [some number of] degrees?" When greater rotations were required relative to the original (i.e, 270 degrees), reaction times were longer than when smaller rotations (i.e., 15 degress) were required.

Possible results for Sternberg's experiment: if we engage in parallel search for STM... how does the size of the memory set change the time it takes to search?

Memory set size doesn't matter The time to search does not change in relation to the size of the memory set. Everything is searched simultaneously.

What is memory?

Memory: processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present

New conception of STM is "______________" emphasizing the ________ nature of STM.

New conception of STM is "working memory," emphasizing the active nature of STM.

Types of Interference: retroactive what material interferes examples

Newer material interferes backward in time with your recollection of older items. New cellphone number interferes with your ability to remember your old number You may have trouble remembering how to drive an automatic car after driving a standard car for a while

Types of Interference: proactive what material interferes examples

Older material interferes forward in time with your recollection of a newer item. -An old cellphone number interferes with your ability to remember your new number -Clicking the wrong button on a new remote -Opening the wrong app on a friend's phone because her browser app is where your picture app is

Retrieval From STM: Sternberg (1966) slide 32-36 What was the experiment/what were participants told to do

Participant learns a memory set of one to six letters A target letter is presented, and participant is asked "Was is in the memory set?" Participant responds "yes" or "no" as quickly as possible

What is the duration of STM?: Brown-Peterson Task experiment? Conclusion?

Present a three-consonant set of letters: B K G Ask participant to count backward by 3's, then recall the letters. It prevents participants from rehearsing the information in their head 3 seconds of counting: 80% recall letters 18 seconds of counting: 7% recall letters Conclusions: without rehearsal, information in STM decays rapidly.

STM can hold about ______ pieces of information for about _____seconds without rehearsal.

STM can hold about seven pieces of information for about 20 seconds without rehearsal.

Difference Between STM and WM

STM holds information for a brief period of time WM is concerned with the processing and manipulation of information that occurs during complex cognition

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) 's Modal Model of Memory Suggested three different types of memory:

Sensory Memory - Initial stage that holds all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second Short-term Memory - Holds five to seven items for about 15 to 20 seconds Long-term Memory - Can hold a large amount of information for years (even decades).

Short term memory: chunking what is it/ what is a chunk

Small units can be combined into larger meaningful units Chunk is a collection of elements strongly associated with one another but weakly associated with elements in other chunks.

Iconic Memory: George Sperling (1960) basics of his experiment...

Sperling was interested in measuring the capacity and duration of sensory memory. An array of letters flashed quickly on a screen (like the one below) Participants were asked to report as many as possible

Short term memory: stores how much info/for how long includes what type of info duration?

Stores small amounts of information for a brief duration Includes both new information received from the sensory stores and information recalled from long-term memory Duration of STM, when rehearsal is prevented, is about 15-20 seconds

Baddeley & Hitch's Model of Working Memory: Episodic buffer what is it/capable of doing how does it compare to phonological loop or visuospatial sketchpad in holding information

Temporary system capable of integrating information from different sources. Backup store that communicates with LTM (long-term memory) and WM components Hold information longer and has greater capacity than phonological loop or visuospatial sketchpad

H. M. & Clive Wearing; general deficits and importance to understanding brain function

article

What is an example of articulatory suppression (used in an experiment we learned)

counting backwards from 3's as mentioned on the slide about the Brown-Peterson task ...prevents the phonological loop from working

Sensory memory holds a _______ amount of information for a _______ period of time

large, short Collects information Holds information for initial processing Fills in the blank

Working memory definition

limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning

Iconic Memory: George Sperling (1960)'s Whole report method:

participants asked to report as many as could be seen. Participants reported, on average, 4.5 out of 12 letters (37.5%)

Iconic Memory: George Sperling (1960)'s Partial report method:

participants heard tone (immediately after the letters were presented) that told them which row of letters to report. Participants reported, on average, 3.3 out of 4 letters (82%) Participants were able to report this many from any row! Delayed partial report method: presentation of tone delayed for a fraction of a second after the letters were removed from the screen. Performance decreased rapidly! video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ck_GRSB-7s

Searching STM is a ________, ________ process.

searching STM is a serial, exhaustive process.

Modal model divides memory into (3 things)

sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Sensory memory: definition how long does it last?

the retention, for extremely brief periods of time, of the effects of sensory stimulation. (senses, visual and auditory) Information decays very quickly