PSY 260 Study Set Exam #2
Modal Model of Memory
- Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) - Structural Features: 1. Sensory memory 2. Short term memory 3. Long term memory - includes control processes - Memory has limited capacity ~ space, resources and time - describes memory as a mechanism that involves processing info thru a series of stages, including ST memory and LT memory - "modal model" because it contained features of many models that were proposed in the 1960s
Dewey Rundus 1971
- Tested the idea of primacy effect
Keppal and Underwood (1961)
- questioned peterson and peterson's results - was it actually duration or interference for the other trials? - found that the drop off in memory for later trials was not due to decay but to proactive interference
Semantic memory
-facts and knowledge -knowing -does not involve mental time travel - General knowledge
When did Atkinson and Shiffrin devise the MSM?
1968
What did Baddeley et al (1996) find?
Acoustic similarity had no effect on recall but words that were similar in meaning were poorly recalled.
Memory System Includes Control Processes
Active processes that can be controlled by the person & may differ from one task to another
Working memory
Alan Baddeley • Short term memory - Emphasizes memory storage • Working memory - Emphasizes the functionof working memory
long term memory - LTM
An archive of information about past events and things that we have learned.
Modal Model of Memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) Computer as a model for human cognition Memory is an integrated system that processes information Acquire, store, and retrieve information Components of memory do not act in isolation Memory has a limited capacity Limited space Limited resources Limited time
How do we know what the duration of STM is? "Brown & the Petersons"
Brown & the Petersons →Concluded that the duration of STM is less than 20 sec. →They believed that performance dropped due to the decay of memory in STM. •Some suggest that the drop-off in memory in the B-P task not due to decay but due to proactive interference
Reducing interference by Chunking
Chunking: 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
Baddeley's working memory model
Connects visual inputs to visuospatial buffer auditory inputs connected to articulatory rehearsal loop (basically same thing as short term memory) these are both slave systems that are related to the central executive and long term memory
amnesia
Damage to the brain resulting in impaired memory for events occurring either before or after the damage.
Retrograde & Anterograde Amnesia
Demonstrate a dissociation between STM and LTM; STM is unimpaired in both forms of amnesia. These are two different memory systems.
Semantic
Dominant type of encoding in LTM
Phonological
Dominant type of encoding in STM
Types of explicit memory?
Episodic and Semantic
Different types of LTM
Explicit versus Implicit memory. □ Explicit memory is memory for events or knowledge that you are conscious of; stuff you know that you know. □ Implicit memory is expressed without conscious awareness; your behavior indicates memory even though you can't report it.
Modal Model of Memory - Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968
Flow diagram, called the modal model because it included many of the features of memory models that were being proposed in the 1960s
The effect of time
Forgetting increases with longer intervals from the original encoding
Does rehearsing a word move it into LTM?
Glenberg, Smith, & Green (1977) Participants studied a 4-digit number for 2s. Then rehearsed a word for 2s, 6s, or 18s. Given a surprise test for the word. Rehearsal doesn't help when you're doing shallow processing
What does 'duration' refer to?
How long an item lasts in the store.
What did Miller (1956) find?
If encoded as chunks, more digits overall were recalled. Even though the chunks are not meaningful they impose a rhythm which seems to make it easier to recall them.
Visual
Images, Mental Snapshots
primacy effect: serial position curve
In a memory experiment in which a list of words is presented, better recall for words presented at the beginning of the list. opposite Recency effect.
serial position curve
In a memory experiment in which participants are asked to recall a list of words, a plot of the percentage of participants remembering each word against the position of that word in the list. - primacy & recency effect - items in the middle list positions are harder to remember
Sperling Experiment: What did the partial report show us that the whole report didn't?
In the partial report average participants saw 82% of letters no matter which row was cued, it was concluded that the correct description of what was happening was that immediately after the display was presented, participants saw an average of 82% letters in the whole display, but were not able to report all of these letters b/c they rapidly faded as the initial letters were being reported
What is the purpose of the digit span task?
It is designed to test the span of auditory info that an individual can retain.
How does a distraction prevent the retention of information in short term memory?
It prevents rehearsal of the information, so the information is forgotten.
Who devised the Digit Span technique?
Jacobs (1887)
_____________between words decreases the primary effect
Less time
Levels/types of processing
Levels of Processing • Shallow processing - Thinking about superficial characteristics - (e.g., typeface, letters, sound) • Deep processing - Thinking about meaning
Primacy effect
Memory better for stimuli presented at the beginning
Capacity of Working memory
Miller (1956) • George Miller's "magic number" - Short-term store: 7±2 items • What's an item? - 17761941191418651812 - 1776, 1941, 1914, 1865, 1812 • Our capacity is 7±2 chunks.
LTM
More recent memories are more detailed
_____________between words increases the primacy effect
More time
An example of proactive interference in long-term memory
Old phone number interfering with remembering new phone number
Decay Theory -Petersen and Petersen experiment
On each trial, subjects first learn group of letters (which changes every trial) and then count backward from the number indicated. Finding...number of letters remembered decreases based on how long you count backward. Implying there is a decay in memory because of time
What is 'chunking'?
Organizing information into meaningful units.
IMPLICIT SUBDIVIDES INTO
PROCEDURAL, PRIMING, CONDITIONING
What did Peterson and Peterson (1959) find?
Participants were able to recall 80% of trigrams after a 3- second interval without rehearsal, but their recall became progressively worse as the time intervals lengthened. After 18 seconds, participants could recall fewer than 10% correctly.
Outline Baddeley et al's (1996) procedure.
Participants were presented with a random sequence of ten words. There were four lists: 1. Acoustically similar (e.g. mad, map, mat) 2. Acoustically dissimilar (e.g. pen, cow, pit) 3. Semantically similar (e.g. tall, high, broad) 4. Semantically dissimilar (e.g. foul, thin, late) Each list was presented four times and then recall was tested after a 20- minute interval. Rehearsal was presented.
Outline what Sperling (1960) found
People remember seeing more than they can recall, but the image fades during the time it takes to report back four of the items.
Decay Reconsidered
Peterson & Peterson's (1959) data are caused by proactive interference rather than decay Keppel & Underwood (1962) showed that there is no decay on the first trial Decay on subsequent trials is due to interference with stimuli presented on previous trials
Who researched the duration of short- term memory?
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Evidence Phonological Loop Articulatory suppression
Prevents one from rehearsing items to be remembered Reduces memory span Eliminates word-length effect Reduces phonological similarity effect for reading words
what causes primacy and recency? Atkinson & Shriffrin 1968: primacy
Primacy is caused by rehearsal moving items from STM into LTM. Early list items tend to be rehearsed more than later list items.
Evidence support Persistence of Vision
Prior to 1960, many scientists noted that visual information seems to persist for a few hundred milliseconds after the offset of a stimulus This was based on introspection, with no data Example: Sparklers, camera flash
Evidence support Persistence of Vision
Prior to 1960, many scientists noted that visual information seems to persist for a few hundred milliseconds after the offset of a stimulus This was based on introspection, with no data Example: Sparklers, camera flashEvidence support Persistence of Vision
Problems with decay theory
Proactive interference (PI): occurs when information learned previously interferes with learning new information
Wikens et al (1976)
Proactive interference can be reduced by employing different semantic categories.
Interactions between STM and LTM: Maintenance Rehearsal
Repeating information using your inner speech in order to maintain it in STM. □ The longer information is held in STM, the more likely it is to be transferred into LTM.
What are the three stores of the MSM?
Sensory Store Short- term Store Long- term Store
Sperling's Conclusions
Sensory memory (iconic memory) exists Sensory memory decays rapidly Fades by 50% within approximately 150 ms Almost entirely gone within 500 ms Thus, evidence to support sensory memory, and interaction with short-term memory, is strong.
What did Sperling's experiment on sensory memory show us?
Sensory memory is important for • collecting information to be processed • holding information briefly while initial processing is going on • filling in the blanks when stimulation is intermittent
Word Length Effect
Short words ("man") are easier to remember than long words ("gentleman"). □ The longer a word is, the more time it takes to pronounce. □ The faster you can pronounce a word, the more times you can rehearse it through the phonological loop within a given period of time. □ The more times a word is rehearsed through the phonological loop the better it is remembered. □ The shorter word "cat" should be better remembered than the longer word "hippopotamus"- the word length effect.
Outline Sperling's (1960) research
Showed 12 participants 12 letters in 3 rows for 50 milliseconds.
Auditory
Sounds, spoken words
Acoustic Representations:
Speech-like code important for reading and thinking. □ Inner Speech: The "voice" inside your head when you read or think (also called "subvocalization").
Who researched into the Sensory Store of the MSM?
Sperling (1960)
LTM
Storage stretches from a few moments ago to as far back as one can remember
Explanation:
Survival is important for us, as a result, when related to survival, there is deeper processing of the information and it is thus stored in long term memory
Which case study was conducted by Milner (1966)?
The case study of HM.
Phenomena Explained by Working Memory: Phonological Similarity Effect
The confusion of letters or words that sound similar
What did the Brown/Peterson & Peterson experiments test, and what were the results?
The effect of a distraction on the ability to recall a certain piece of information. The results stated that when an unrelated distractor task is introduced following a study item, memory for that item is diminished.
Sensory Memory
The retention, for brief periods of time, of the effects of sensory stimulation
What is proactive interference?
This occurs when previously learned information interferes with memory for new information.
What does the model describe?
Three separate stores, through which information passes.
repetition priming
When an initial presentation of a stimulus affects the person's response to the same stimulus when it is presented later.
implicit memory: priming
When the presentation of something changes the future response to that same thing, or a related thing.
conceptual Priming
When the priming and test stimuli are different but related by category, function, or association.
Semantic coding has been demonstrated in STM by
Wickens, by demonstrating release from proactive inhibition.
auditory coding ltm
a song you have heard, repeating in your mind
Priming occurs when
a stimulus affects response to the same or a related stimulus
long-term memory is
an archive of information about past experiences in our lives and knowledge we have learned
experiencing semantic memory
doesn't have to be personal; knowing
Semantic
facts, and knowledge
The hippocampus is important for
forming new long-term memories.
Implicit memory occurs when
learning from experience is not accompanied by conscious remembering.
hippocampus
long-term memories, remote episodic memories, short-term storage
The primacy and recency effects that occur in the serial position curve have been linked to
long-term memory and short-term memory, respectively.
what is procedural memory? why is it implicit memory?
memory for physical actions; people without long-term memories can still learn new skills
What is priming? Repetition priming?
one stimulus changes the way a person responds to another stimulus; repetition is when the test stimulus is the same as the priming stimulus
semantic coding ltm
recalling general plot of novel you read last week (Sachs)
Glanzer and Cunitz experiment conclusion
recency effect due to storage of recently presented items in STM
auditory coding stm
representing the sounds of letters in the mind just after hearing them (Conrad)
Persistence of vision:
retention of the perception of light info being transferred to visual cortex from photo receptors. (latency) Sparkler's trail of light Frames in film
the modal memory model - Shiffrin, 1968
sensory memory - initial stage holding raw information for a very short time; a couple secs for sounds, split sec for vision. -Short-term Memory (STM) - intermediate stage holding 4-7 things for 15-30 secs. Mediates ongoing tasks and holds current thoughts (the "seat of consciousness"). -Long-term Memory (LTM)- holds unlimited information for an unlimited time.
STM AND LTM
served by different regions
Memory Code
the form in which information is represented in memory. □ Info in your computer is represented in bits, but how is information represented in your STM? □ Sensory memory uses an iconic or echoic code. This works well for recognition, but it wouldn't help us to do STM tasks.
Explicit memories, such as episodic and semantic memo- ries, are memories
we are aware of
Actual duration of STM
when rehearsal is prevented, around 15 - 20 sec
what causes primacy and recency? Atkinson & Shriffrin 1968: recency
• Recency is not caused by rehearsal; recency is strongest when rehearsal is at its lowest. • Recency benefits appear for list items still in STM. • Items in STM are more likely to be reported, leading to the recency benefit
Forgetting from STM
• The rapid loss of information from memory in the absence of rehearsal. • By rehearsing information - a memory strategy or "control process", you can retain it indefinitely.
Persistence of Vision
• The retention of the perception of light in your mind • Example: with sparklers, the lighted trail after waving a lit sparkler is a creation of your mind, which retain a perception of the sparkler's light for a fraction of a second
Peterson & Peterson (1959): conclusion
• if rehearsal is prevented, information in STM will fade away after about 20 seconds.
Braddeley's Working Memory Model
•Alan Baddeley (1974) proposed a new model of STM called working memory.
Chunking
•Combining smaller units into larger meaningful units →So perhaps it's best to say that the capacity of STM is 5 to 9 chunks of information.
Components of the phonological loop:
□ Phonological Store: holds speech-like info for about 2 sec. □ Articulatory Control Process: (1) translating visual information into a speech-like code and moving this to the phonological store, (2) refreshes the memory traces being held in the phonological store.
implicit memory components
□ Procedural Memory: Memory for actions or skills; how to do things (riding a bike, tying shoe laces, typing on a keyboard). □ Priming: When the presentation of something changes the future response to that same thing, or a related thing.
two types of priming
□ Repetition Priming: When the priming stimulus and the test stimulus are either the same or very similar. □ Conceptual Priming: When the priming and test stimuli are different but related by category, function, or association.
word fragment task: priming
□ Subjects see a long list of words at study, then later have to identify test word "fragments" as quickly as possible.
Properties of Visual Sensory Memory
□ Visual sensory memory has a very high capacity -it can hold a lot of information. □ But has a very short duration, only about ½ second.
Glanzer and Cunitz 1966 Experiment to test for Recency effect
- Count backwards for 30 seconds - Delay prevented rehearsal- Allowed time for info. to be lost from STM - Eliminates or reduces the recency effect
Sensory Memory (Iconic Memory)
- Short-lived sensory memory registers all or most information that hits our visual receptors(large capacity) - there is a brief register so info doesn't disappear stored Information decays very quickly: hundreds of milliseconds
Articulatory rehearsal loop
- Temporarily maintains acoustic information.
Sensory memory
- all information that hits our visual receptors, and decays very quickly - large amount of information, available for only a short period of time - collects information and then some is further processed, but most isn't ex. moving sparkler
Proactive interference
- decrease in memory that occurs when previously information interferes with learning new information -interference was enhanced by the meaning of the words. https://o.quizlet.com/NhunDLTT-.Ibh1mjjSuHyg_m.jpg
Proactive interference (PI)
- discovered in Keppal and Underwoods experiment - interference that occurs when information that was previously learned interferes with learning new information - info learned interferes with you learning new information
Chase and Simon (1973)
- experiment using chunking based on the interaction between STM and LTM - 2 players: chess master and chess beginner - 2 conditions: pieces positioned for real chess game and pieces presented randomly - they were able to look at it for a period of time, then they were given a blank board and asked to recreate what they saw - chess masters did better with the first condition (chunked pieces based on was chess positions looked) - two players did the same on the second condition - shows STM is affected by what we know in our LTM
Peterson and Peterson (1959) How they measured the duration of STM
- given 3 letters to remember and a number - after given those you count backwards from that number by three, this prevents rehearsing - there were different time intervals given between when they had to recall the letters - results: shorter intervals were more accurate
Sperling's experiment
- how much information people take in from briefly presented stimuli - measures the capacity and duration of the sensory store - flashed an array of letters on the screen for 50 milliseconds and asked participants to report as many letters as possible
Digit span
- measures capacity of STM - number of digits a person can remember - read list of numbers, and ask participant to repeat them back - typical result: 5 - 9 items
Conrad (1964) experiment Auditory coding
- participants saw a number of target letters flashed briefly on the screen and told to write down the letters in the order presented - errors occurred when letters sounded the same - b and v ~ but only saw the letters, they never heard them - results: in STM we remember things by repeating them in our head ~ we represent things auditory in our head
Whole report
- procedure used in Sperling's experiment on the properties of the visual icon, in which participants were instructed to report all of the stimuli they saw in a brief presentation - asked to report as many letters as possible from the whole matrix - they were able to report an avg of 4.5 out of 12 letters (38%)
Partial report method
- procedure used in Sperling's experiment on the properties of the visual icon, in which participants were instructed to report only some of the stimuli in a briefly presented display - cue tone immediately after the display was extinguished indicated part of the display to report - tones presented after the letters so attention directed to whatever trace remained in the participants mind - correctly reported 3.3 out of 4 letters (82%)
Delayed partial report
- same as partial report method, except the cue tone was delayed for a fraction of a second after the display was extinguished indicated which part of the display to report - performance decreases rapidly - if delayed long enough, you are unable to remember because you no longer have access to sensory memory
Procedural
- skill memory - No memory of where or when learned -Perform procedures without being aware of consciously aware of how to do them -People who cannot form new LTMs can still learn new skills (H.M)
H.M underwent__________
- surgery for epilepsy - Romoval of hippocampus on both sides of the brain - no longer he could form new long-term memories
Primacy effect
- words already transferred to LTM - Counting has no effect on Primacy effect - Less time between words
Long Term Memory
-"Archive" of information about past events and knowledge learned -Works closely with working memory -Storage stretches from a few moments ago to as far back as one can remember -More recent memories are more detailed
Episodic memory
-memory for personal events - includes mental time travel - Self-knowing or remembering - No guarantee of accuracy
What two things does memory span dependent on?
1. Remembering what items are, and 2. Remembering the order of the items.
Modal Model of Memory: Three Major Structural Features (Stages)
1.) Sensory Memory: an initial stage that holds all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second 2.) Short-Term Memory (STM): holds 5-7 items for about 15-30 seconds 3.) Long-Term Memory (LTM): can hold a large amount of information for years or even decades
Sperling's Experiment: Delayed Partial Report Method
12 letters are again flashed for 50 msec, but now subjects report back only a cued row. - See display & hear a tone immediately after, but is delayed by 0-1 sec
What is George Miller's magic number of how many digits an average person can remember at once?
7 plus or minus 2 digits.
priming
A change in response to a stimulus caused by the previous presentation of the same or a similar stimulus. See also Repetition priming.
Working Memory (WM)
A limited-capacity system for the temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks (e.g., comprehension, language, reasoning). • Differs from STM in that it emphasizes the manipulation and coordination of this information, not just how it is stored (the capacity and duration questions). □ Efficient task performance requires that information be used in a very specific way or sequence; WM addresses this.
long-term memory
A memory mechanism that can hold large amounts of information for long periods of time. Long-term memory is one of the stages in the modal model of memory.
What does some evidence point to?
An interaction between the LTM and STM, rather than a linear model. Largely due to the case study of KF
What is the duration of short term memory, and what does this depend on?
Anywhere from seconds to unlimited, and it depends on how much the information in short term memory is rehearsed and the presence of a distraction.
LTM
Archive of information about past events and knowledge learned.
Who devised the Multi- Store Model of Memory?
Atkinson and Shiffrin
What must happen to information for it to be passed from the sensory memory store to the short- term store?
Attention must be paid to it
Echoic Memory
Auditory sensory memory: An auditory sensory memory system that can hold sound information for about 2 seconds.
Even though episodic and semantic memories are served by different mechanisms, they are connected in the follow- ing ways: 2
Autobiographical memories include both episodic and semantic components.
Who researched into LTM encoding?
Baddeley et al (1966)
Summary: Working Memory
Baddeley's model has been very successful - Separate storage of visuospatial and acoustic info. - An executive at the head of the system. - Performs memory & attention functions as well as simple storage.
Who researched into the duration of the LTM?
Bahrick et al (1975)
How are we able to remember more information than 'George Miller's magic number'?
By chunking.
Chunking to develop expertise
Chase and Simon (1973) Memory for chess pieces on a board Chess masters and beginners Pieces positioned for a real chess game or randomly positioned Results of Chase and Simon's (1973a, 1973b) chess memory experiment. (a) The chess master is better at reproducing actual game positions. (b) Master's performance drops to level of beginner when pieces are arranged randomly.
What did Miller (1956) conclude?
Chunking information increases capacity in the STM.
What did Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) find?
Condition 1: The first and last items were recalled better. Condition 2: Words from the last part of the list were not well recalled.
Retroactive Interference (RI)
Confusing more recently remember learned material with what you are trying to remember. □ When newer information in memory interferes with the recall of older information.
Proactive Interference
Confusing previously learned material with what you are trying to remember. □ When old information in memory interferes with the recall of newer information.
Who researched encoding in the STM?
Conrad (1964)
What did Sperling (1960) conclude?
Decay happens very quickly in sensory memory (duration is short) and capacity is very limited.
EXPLICIT SUBDIVIDES INTO
EPISODIC - PERSONAL EVENTS AND SEMANTIC - FACTS, AND KNOWLEDGE
LTM DIVIDES INTO
EXPLICIT - CONSCOUS AND IMPLICIT - NOT CONCIOUS https://o.quizlet.com/ZqTnA06ccx3i3vjtMjcF0g_m.jpg
Craik & Lockhart (1972)
Encoding depends on how much time you spend rehearsing in a meaningful way.
What are some of the control processes described by Atkinson and Shiffrin?
Encoding, retrieval and rehearsal
Where does information enter the system?
From the environment
Who researched the 'Primary and Recency effect'?
Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)
Who had a normal STM but a defective LTM, suggesting that they are separate stores?
HM
Neuropsychological evidence to support modal model
HM (patient) has damage to long-term but not short-term memory. Short-term memory has different properties (e.g., limited capacity, short time scale) compared to long-term memory (e.g., "unlimited", much longer time scale).
Vacation. In this task, we would like you to imagine that you are enjoying an extended vacation at a fancy resort with all your basic needs taken care of. Over the next few months, you'll want to find different activities to pass the time and maximize your enjoyment of the vacation. Please rate how relevant each of these words would be for you in this vacation situation.
However, as a further test of this narrative-theme hypothesis, we conducted another withinsubjects experiment directly comparing survival processing with a contextually rich (but non-survival-relevant) encoding scenario. Results and Discussion The results are shown in Figure 2. Once again, survival processing produced a clear and significant recall advantage—this time against a contextually rich but non-survival-related contro
Working Memory Baddeley Hitch model Key Concept:
If the information is decaying faster than it can be refreshed, then information will be lost; if information can be refreshed faster than it decays, then the information will be maintained.
recency effect: serial position curve
In a memory experiment in which a list of words is presented, better recall for words presented at the end of the list. opposite primacy effect.
Where does information first register?
In the sensory memory store
What did Peterson and Peterson (1959) conclude?
Information decays rapidly from the STM when rehearsal is prevented. Duration is limited.
What did the Primary and Recency effect do?
It identified the distinction between STM and LTM (functional dissociation)
Who researched into STM capacity using the digit span technique?
Jacobs (1887)
Even though episodic and semantic memories are served by different mechanisms, they are connected in the follow- ing ways: 1
Knowledge (semantic memory) can influence the nature of experiences that become episodic memories.
What did Baddeley et al (1996) conclude?
LTM codes were mainly semantic (for meaning)
What type of experiment is used in all the research into the MSM?
Lab experiments
Sperling and Sensory Memory Whole report:
Letters flashed on screen, participants asked to report as many as could be seen Average of 4.5 out of 12 letters (37.5%) The problem here is that how many letters subjects can remember will be limited by the next step, short-term memory, which has limited store (~7+/-2).
How is information encoded in the short- term store?
Mainly acoustic
How is information encoded in the long- term store?
Mainly semantic- for meaning
Semantic Representations
Meaning-based code that is important for both STM and LTM - but mainly LTM □ Sort of the dictionary definition of something. A dog is an animal that has four legs and goes "woof" A plane has wings and an engine and flies around A chair has four legs and is something that you sit on
implicit memory: procedural memory
Memory for actions or skills; how to do things like riding a bike, tying shoe laces, typing on a keyboard.
skill memory
Memory for doing things that usually involve learned skills.
procedural memory
Memory for how to carry out highly practiced skills. Procedural mem- ory is a type of implicit memory because although people can carry out a skilled behavior, they often cannot explain exactly how they are able to do so.
Evidence for a Phonological Loop 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
Irrelevant Speech Effect
Memory is best if material is learned in a quiet setting, without background noise. □ The WM model explains this in terms of phonological interference. Irrelevant speech is acoustic and therefore goes directly into the phonological store where it can interfere with other information. □ Irrelevant visual information doesn't interfere as much because the articulatory control process doesn't translate it into a speech-like code.
•Phonological Similarity Effect:
Memory is worse for items that sound alike than for items that sound different. F M N S X hard to remember R H X K Y easier to remember □ Baddeley explained this in terms of interference in the phonological store; more interference for more similar items. □ He also predicted that the phonological similarity effect would exist for letter strings that are presented visually. □ Once the articulatory control process translates information into a speech-like code, it becomes susceptible to phonological interference. □ The phonological similarity effect shows up regardless of whether stimuli are presented visually or auditorially.
Semantic Memory
Memory of meanings, understandings, facts, and both concept-based and general knowledge (in what city is the Eiffel tower located?)
explicit memory
Memory that involves conscious recollections of events or facts that we have learned in the past
implicit memory
Memory that occurs when an experience affects a person's behavior, even though the person is not aware that he or she has had the experience.
Information Processing Model
Memory-processes involved in the encoding, retaining,retrieval, and use of information about images, events,ideas, and skills after the original information is gone -Duration: how long information can be held. -Capacity: how much information can be held. -Control Processes: system specific processes affecting duration and capacity.
Who researched into capacity of the STM with the 'Magical Number Seven?
Miller (1956)
Who supported Jacob's (1887) study?
Miller (1956)
Who used 'chunking' in their research?
Miller (1956)
Outline Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) procedure.
Participants were given lists of words presented at one time. They were asked to freely recall. There were 2 conditions: 1. Participants were asked to recall immediately 2. Participants were given a distractor task after the presentation of words and had to count backwards in threes for 30 seconds before recalling.
Outline Peterson and Peterson's (1959) procedure.
Participants were shown a consonant trigram, with no vowels to prevent rehearsal (e.g CXK) Participants were asked to count backwards out loud in threes from a specified number (e.e. 451) to stop them rehearsing the trigram. After intervals of 3,6,9,12,15,18 seconds, participants were asked to stop counting and to repeat the trigram. This was repeated using different trigrams on each presentation.
Outline Conrad's (1964) study.
Participants were shown a random sequence of 6 consonants projected on a screen in very rapid succession. There were two conditions: 1. Letters were acoustically similar (e.g. B, D, C) 2. Letters were acoustically dissimilar (e.g. F, K, X) Immediately after the presentation, participants were asked to write down the letter sin correct serial order.
Visual Representations
Processed visual information; colors, shapes, and their spatial inter-relationships. □ Useful in representing scenes, layouts of interiors, and maps.
Sperling 1960 whole report task
Question: Why couldn't Sperling conclude that only 4.5 items can be recognized from a brief display? Answer: Subjects may have recognized all of the letters, but in the few seconds needed to report them the letters may have faded from sensory memory.
Coding
Refers to the form in which stimuli are represented
According to the results of the Brown/Peterson & Peterson experiments, what does the duration of short term memory depend on?
Rehearsal of the information.
What is one of the most important control processes?
Rehearsal, whereby information can be circulated within the STM and passed on to the LTM.
What did Jacobs (1887) do and find?
Researched into the capacity of the STM by presenting digit strings to participants which increased in length each time. Found that participants could recall about 7 digits, on average.
Visual and auditory coding can occur in both
STM and LTM
Neuropsychological studies have demonstrated a double dissociation between
STM and LTM, which supports the idea that STM and LTM are caused by different independent mechanisms.
Auditory coding is the predominant type of coding in; Semantic coding is the predominant type in
STM, LTM
What are serial position effects? What is the effect of remembering 'at the beginning' and 'at the end'?
Serial position effects state that when given a list of items verbally and asked to recall them, we recall the items stated at the beginning of the list and at the end of the list more often. The effect of remembering things at the beginning of the list is called the primacy effect, and the effect of remembering things at the end of the list is called the recency effect.
What is the difference between short term memory and working memory?
Short term memory has to do with the capacity to store small amounts of information over a short period of time, and working memory allows us to store and MANIPULATE that information, for problem solving, reasoning, etc..
Sperling's Experiment Conclusions
Sperling concluded that sensory memory registers all or most of what we take in, but it decays very rapidly (less than a second for visual information)
Craik and Tulving (1975)
Ss study 60 words; 3 types of tasks. - Is the word lowercase? - Is the word a rhyme? - Does the word fit a category? Case had lowest Recognition; .4, Rhyme had middle recognition; .58 Category had highest recognition; .79 meaning is important (deep processing)
Keppel & Underwood (1962)
Study that supports the interference interpretation; suggested that some of the forgetting that was observed in the Brown-Peterson Paradigm was due to interference from items learned on previous trials. They only used three trials to depict that interference was the cause for forgetting. They found that there was virtually no forgetting on the first trial, yet on the second and third trials forgetting was observed. Thus, they concluded that when there was no source of interference, there was no STM forgetting.
Serial Recall Task
Subjects are presented with a list of items one after the other, then have to recall the items in the order that they were presented - Murdoch, 1962. presented list : 7 4 3 2 8 6 7 4 3 2 8 6 recalled list: 7 4 3 2 8 6 all right 8 2 6 3 7 4 all wrong - even though the digits are all right
What did Conrad (1964) find?
That participants found it more difficult to recall strings of letters that sounded the same than letters that sounded different. They often substituted one for the other, e.g. V for D.
What did Craik and Lockhart find?
That things are better remembered if they are processed semantically. Some things are remembered because of their emotional impact and do not need to be rehearsed.
What did Miller (1956) propose?
That we can hold about 7 items in our STM, but that there is a range of capacity between 5 to 9 items. These items can be chunks of information.
Central Executive
The "boss" of working memory (WM involves storage attention, and more). - Manages the slave systems - Initiates retrieval from long-term memory - Plans cognitive tasks - Initiates decision processes - Allocates attention - Maintains attention
What does 'encoding' refer to?
The form of representation used e.g. visual, acoustic, semantic
What did Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) conclude?
The interference task had displaced the last few words in the list from the fragile STM, but the first words had already been rehearsed and passed into the robust LTM.
In proactive interference, what does the similarity of information do to the interference?
The more similar the information you're learning is to the information you know, the more interference there should be.
Central executive
The part of working memory that is responsible for monitoring and directing attention and other mental resources. - allocating resources, manipulating auditory or visual efforts. -Attention controller -Focus, divide, switch attention - Controls suppression of irrelevant information
Phonological Loop & Visuospatial Sketchpad
The phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are relatively independent of one another but they are connected through the central executive.
How is information lost from the long- term store?
Through damage to the brain and/ or interference
How is information passed into the long- term store?
Through sufficient rehearsal
Interactions between STM and LTM: Chunking
Using LTM to increase STM capacity. The "meaning" that is needed to chunk info comes from LTM. • All info entering LTM has to go through STM, and all info retrieved from LTM has to re-enter STM. STM acts as the "gatekeeper" for LTM, affecting what goes in and out.
Explain the duration and capacity of the short- term store
Very small capacity- memory traces are fragile The duration is very short- if information is not rehearsed and used it will be lost within a few seconds.
Iconic Memory
Visual sensory memory: A visual sensory memory system that can hold a lot of unprocessed visual information for about ½ second.
How is information encoded in the sensory store?
Visual, auditory, and tactile encoding
What did Conrad (1964) conclude?
Visually presented information was encoded acoustically and caused confusion where it was similar.
Working Memory - WM
WM consists of 3 separate but interacting components. • Central Executive: The "boss", coordinates the slave systems to perform some task (a lot like attention) • Visuospatial Sketch Pad: Important for visual imagery and the mental manipulation of visual information. • Phonological Loop: Important for remembering and using auditory information. Consists of two components.
How does 'chunking' help us remember things?
We engage in internal mental processes in order to convert stimuli into a manageable number of chunks.
Nairne et al. (2008) Survival. ''In this task, we would like you to imagine that you are stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land, without any basic survival materials. Over the next few months, you'll need to find steady supplies of food and water and protect yourself from predators. We are going to show you a list of words, and we would like you to rate how relevant each of these words would be for you in this survival situation.''
We recently proposed that human memory systems are ''tuned'' to remember information that is processed for survival, perhaps as a result of fitness advantages accrued in the ancestral past. This proposal was supported by experiments in which participants showed superior memory when words were rated for survival relevance, at least relative to when words received other forms of deep processing. The current experiments tested the mettle of survival memory by pitting survival processing against conditions that are universally accepted as producing excellent retention, including conditions in which participants rated words for imagery, pleasantness, and self-reference; participants also generated words, studied words with the intention of learning them, or rated words for relevance to a contextually rich (but non-survival-related) scenario. Survival processing yielded the best retention, which suggests that it may be one of the best encoding procedures yet discovered in the memory field
Sperling and Sensory Memory Partial report tone delay:
When the cue is presented shortly after the array of letters and numbers, the subjects transfer information about the cued row from the iconic image into short-term memory, and then report it Because each row contains only 4 items and subjects must store only 1 row, performance is not limited by the fact that only 5 items can be stored in short-term memory If subjects can report 90% of the letters in the cued row, they presumably had a memory of 90% of the entire array at the time of the cue If the cue is too late, they store randomly-selected items rather than storing only the items in the cued row
Working Memory
Working memory (WM) - A more recent term for short-term memory, emphasizing its function.
Working Memory Baddeley Hitch model
Working memory differs from STM STM holds information for a brief period of time WM is concerned with the processing and manipulation of information that occurs during complex cognition in different degrees of time WM is set up to process different types of information simultaneously WM has trouble when similar types of information are presented at the same time
Articulatory Suppression Effect
Worse memory when an irrelevant word is repeated during a retention interval. □ Repeating a word ("the", "the", "the"...) after the presentation of a memory list makes it harder to recall the list items. □ Articulatory suppression ties up the articulatory control process and prevents information from being recycled through the phonological loop. In the absence of recycling, information fades after 2 secs, leading to poor memory. □ Articulatory suppression blocks the phonological similarity effect for visual stimuli, but not for auditory stimuli. □ Repeating a word prevents the articulatory control process from translating visual codes into phonological codes; this translation step isn't needed for auditorially presented items.
STM According to the Modal Model
You shouldn't be able to remember the numbers and read the passage at the same time, because it would exceed the capacity of STM.
Control processes
active processes that can be controlled by the person and may differ from one task to another ex. ~ rehearsal - repeating stimulus over and over ~ strategies you might use to help make a stimulus more memorable, such as relating the numbers in a phone number to a familiar date in history. ~ strategies of attention that help you focus on information that is particularly important or interesting.
Control processes
active processes that can be controlled by the person: Rehearsal Strategies used to make a stimulus more memorable Strategies of attention, attending
Procedural memory, also called skill memory, has been studied in
amnesiac patients
The implicit nature of priming has been demonstrated in both
amnesiac patients and nonamnesiac subjects.
predominant coding STM
auditory
Why is the MSM called a structural model?
because it focuses of the storage components of the memory system
The following evidence supports the idea that episodic and semantic memory involve different mechanisms: (2)
brain imaging, which indi- cates that overlapping but different areas are activated by episodic and semantic memories.
Semantic coding has been demonstrated in LTM
by Sachs, 14. using a recognition memory procedure.
Chunking
combining small units into larger ones (ex. individual words are combined into a meaningful sentence) - used to increase capacity of memory
Procedural memory is a
common component of many of the skills we have learned.
Sperling and Sensory Memory Partial report:
cue people with tones to remember different parts gets around capacity limits of STM participants heard tone that told them which row of letters to report Average of 3.3 out of 4 letters (82.5%) Participants could report any of the rows
The following evidence supports the idea that episodic and semantic memory involve different mechanisms: (1)
double dissociation of episodic and semantic memory in patients with brain damage;
Sperling's Experiment: Whole Report Method
flash up 12 letters for 50 msec, then ask a person to report back as many as they can. □ Subjects could only report back about 4.5 of the 12 letters.
Anterograde Amnesia
forgetting what was learned after the event causing the amnesia. □ Patient H.M. suffered from anterograde amnesia after the bilateral removal of his hippocampus. □ H.M. couldn't remember learning about events that occurred after his surgery; he couldn't form new long term memories.
Retrograde Amnesia
forgetting what was learned before the event causing the amnesia. □ A person is hit on the head, then doesn't remember who they are, or (more realistically) events leading up to the trauma.
where is LTM located in brain, how do we know?
hippocampus, H.M. and Wearing
Brain imaging experiments have shown that the hippocampus is also involved in
holding novel infor- mation over short delays.
Digit Span
how many numbers you can remember in short term memery normally 7 plus or minus 2
Procedural memory, priming, and classical conditioning involve
implicit memory
repetition priming is called
implicit memory because the priming effect can occur even though subjects may not remember original presentation of priming stimuli
Priming is not just a laboratory phenomenon but also occurs
in real life
knowledge that makes up semantic memories is
initially attained through personal experiences i.e. episodic memory, but memory of experience fades leaving semantic memory
The experience of semantic memory (knowing) does not
involve mental time travel.
defining property of experiencing episodic memory
involves mental time travel (remembering)
According to Tulving, the defining property of the experi- ence of episodic memory is that it
involves mental time travel (self-knowing or remembering).
What evidence is there to indicate overlap between episodic memory for the past and the ability to imagine future events in the memory of people with brain damage?
people with damage to episodic memory cannot describe personal future
Episodic
personal events/episodes
autobiographical memories are
personal semantic memories
semantic coding stm
placing words in STM into categories (Wickens)
Priming
previous experience changes response without conscious awareness- Presentation of one stimulus (priming stimulus) changes the way a person responds to another stimulus
Serial position curve
primacy effect -Memory is better for words at the beginning of the list, and at the end than for words in the middle. Recency effect -Memory better for stimuli presented at end of the list of a sequence, words are still in STM
Memory
processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas and skills after the original information is no longer present
Memory
processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present
memory capacity
refers to the number of things that can be correctly remembered (encoded and retrieved), with this limit depending on the type of information and its susceptibility to interference.
What evidence is there to indicate overlap between episodic memory for the past and the ability to imagine future events in brain imaging experiments?
same areas of brain are activated for thinking about past and future
predominant coding LTM
semantic
short term memory
sensory information flooding into the eyes-->attention and recognition passes desired number into short-term memory (STM)-->a rehearsal "control process" is used to maintain the information in STM-->Encoding processes are used to move the information into long-term memory (LTM)-->Information can be copied from LTM back into STM and used at a later time.
Working Memory: modal model
sensory input -> sensory memory (unattended information is lost) -> attention -> short term memory (unrehearsed information is lost) maintenance rehearsal required -> encoding -> Long term memory
Short term memory
storing small amounts of information for a brief period of time, usually around 30 sec, unless there is rehearsal that can maintain information in __________ memory. - stage in modal model of memory
Primacy effect
subjects had time to rehearse the words, more likely to enter LTM
Repetition priming
test stimulus is the same as or resembles the priming stimulus.
Rundus experiment
tested primacy effect - same results as murdoch, but added additional list to be said out loud. tapered off.
Phonological loop
the auditory-based part of working memory that allows for the verbal rehearsal of sounds or words repeating info to make sense of it
H.M's ability to trace the star in the mirror, even though he couldn't remember it, illustrates
the implicit nature of procedural memory
Visuospatial sketch pad
the part of working memory that holds and processes visual and spatial information. rotating image to get a mental image
visual persistence
the retention of sensory information for a very brief time for vision
sensory memory
the retention of sensory information for a very brief time. for vision this is called visual persistence
amnesiac patients are able to learn new skills, although
they do not remember learning them.
Priming is often studied using a
word fragment task
LTM
works closely with___________ working memory
Sperlings Conclusions
• A short-lived sensory memory registers all or most of the information that that hits our visual receptors, but this information decays within less than a second • Iconic memory/the visual icon - brief sensory memory for visual stimuli • Auditory stimuli has shown that sound also persists in the mind • Echoic memory - persistence of sound in the mind; lasts for a few seconds after presentation of original stimulus
Evidence for articulatory rehearsal loop?
• Articulatory suppression - Repeat a very simple word ("la") over and over while learning word list • stoat, mumps Greece, zinc - Interferes with short-term memory of the list
What is sensory memory's capacity and duration? How do we know that?
• Capacity of sensory memory (large) • Duration " " (brief) • Can register huge amounts of information, but it retains this information for only seconds or fractions of a second
Why do we forget from STM?
• Decay Theory: Information in STM fades away over time; the memory trace gets weaker until it is gone. • Interference Theory: Other perceptual and cognitive events during the retention interval interferes with what you are trying to remember. • Either theory can explain the Petersons' results. Both time and interference was changing over the retention interval.
Measuring Working Memory
• Digit-span task (Repeat the numbers back - 5 - 3 - 4 - 9 - 8 - 2 - 6) • Operation-span task: Repeat the words back Measuring Working Memory • Digit span task - Measures: Simple rehearsal with the slave systems - Capacity: Miller's magic number: 7±2 • Operation span task - Measures: The capacity of working memory when slave systems are busy - Capacity: About 3-4 items
How does the modal model work? EXAMPLE
• Girl looks up number for pizza place on internet 1.) looking up phone number (all info on screen enters sensory memory) 2.) looking up phone number (focuses on 555-5100; it enters STM) 3.) calling pizza shop (rehearse the number to keep in STM while making the phone call) 4.) memorizing the number (store number in LTM) 5.) few days later, retrieves number to order pizza again (retrieve number from LTM; It goes back to STM & is remembered)
Modal Model of Memory: Short-Term Memory STM
• Holds a very small amount of processed (recognized) info for a short time (but longer than sensory memory). • This is both new info coming from sensory memory and recognition, and info retrieved from long-term memory. • limited by interference to only about 20 seconds, in absence of rehearsal STM integrates info from both sources to do a task.
Methods and results of Sperling's experiment
• How much information people can take in from briefly presented stimuli? 3 parts: 1.) Whole Report Method - person saw all 12 letters at once for 50 ms & reported as many as they could remember 2.) Partial Report - person saw all 12 letters, as before, but immediately after they were turned off, a tone indicated which row the person was to report 3.) Delayed Partial Report - same as partial report, but with delay between extinguishing the letters & presentation of the tone Results: 1.) able to report an average of 4.5/12 letters 2.) 3.3/4 letters 3.) only slightly more than 1 letter a row (4 lets for the whole)
Conrad (1964)
• If STM representations are acoustic, then there should be more memory errors when list items sound alike. • Created two groups of similar-sounding letters: F M N S X all share the short e sound (è) B C P T V all share the long e sound (ē) • Subjects had to recall strings of letters that were a mix of both groups: F S P X V B (half short e sound, half long e sound) • Letters that sounded the same were more easily confused than letters that sounded different. 75% of the confusion errors involved letters from the same group (e.g., confusing a V with a T)
Rundus 1971- primacy effect
• If primacy is due to the number of rehearsals of an item, there should be more rehearsal for early list items. • He asked subjects to rehearse out loud, and counted the number of times each list word was spoken. • Early list items are rehearsed a lot; rehearsal declines with increasing primacy effect serial position.
Glanzer & Cunitz 1966: recency
• If recency is due to STM, and STM only lasts for about 30 seconds without rehearsal, then delaying the recall task beyond 30 secs should reduce recency. • A list was presented, then subjects counted backwards by 3s for 30 seconds before reporting the items. • When items in STM are caused to fade, recency disappears.
Sperlings Graph
• Indicates that immediately after a stimulus is presented, all of most of the stimulus is available for perception (sensory memory) • Over the next second, sensory memory fades, until by 1 second, the number of letters is about the same as the number of letters that were reported using the whole report method • Decrease in performance is due to the rapid decay of iconic memory (sensory memory in the modal model)
Function of Sensory Memory
• It probably helps recognition by freezing information in time, thereby giving recognition a chance to attach meaning to patterns. • Because visual recognition is fast, it doesn't need this information for very long, which explains why visual sensory memory is so short.
The Digit Span Task (Miller, 1956)
• Measures the number of digits that a person can recall. • Found that people had good recall up to about 7 digits, but after this errors were common. • Concluded that our memory span is 7 +/- 2 (5-9 things) • But memory capacity can be increased by getting help from long-term memory via a process called "chunking". □ Chunking is the grouping of info to form meaningful units. □ Chunk: a set of things that are strongly associated with each other but weakly associated with things in other chunks. • STM capacity should be measured in "chunks", not individual units. Whereas 9 letters is beyond our capacity limit, 3 3-letter chunks is not.
Coding information in STM
• Memory Code: the form in which information is represented in memory. • Semantic Representations: Meaning-based code that is important for both STM and LTM (but mainly LTM) • Visual Representations: Processed visual information; colors, shapes, and their spatial inter-relationships. • Acoustic Representations: Speech-like code important for reading and thinking.
Examples of Control Processes
• Rehearsal: repeating a stimulus over and over • Strategies you might use to help make a stimulus more memorable (relating phone number to important history date) • Strategies of attention that help you focus on information that is particularly important or interesting
Chase and Simon (1973)
• Studied STM capacity and chunking using chess. • On average, master chess players recalled 16 out of 24 pieces correctly; novices recalled only 4 of the 24 pieces. • When chess pieces were randomly arranged on the board, master and novice subjects recalled the same number. • They concluded that chess masters chunk pieces into more meaningful units, and therefore process chess information in a qualitatively different way. • Although STM capacity is limited to only 4 things, if these things are chunks then vastly more information can be processed.
Forgetting from STM
• The rapid loss of information from memory in the absence of rehearsal. • By rehearsing information (a memory strategy or "control process"), you can retain it indefinitely. • Evidence points to interference (proactive or retroactive) as being the reason why we forget things from STM. □ Information in STM doesn't just fade away over time. □ Time doesn't cause you to forget things, it's the stuff that happens during that time that interferes with your memory.
Warrington & Weiskrantz - 1968
• Their subjects had anterograde amnesia, and their task was picture fragment completion. □ Subjects would see progressively less fragmented versions of a picture until they correctly named it, then would come back the next two days to do the same task again and again. • Despite having no memory for the previous tests, subjects showed steady improvement over days. • Evidence for a dissociation between explicit and implicit memory (priming)
Peterson & Peterson (1959)
• To measure the duration of STM in the absence of rehearsal they used a "counting backwards" recall task. □ Presented 3 random consonants (e.g., C J P) for subjects to remember. □ A number was then presented, and subjects had to count backwards from this number by 3s for some variable duration retention interval (time between the presentation of the to-be-remembered material and the memory test). This prevented subjects from rehearsing the letters. □ Following the retention interval (and counting), subjects had to recall (report back) the three letters.
word length effect
• Word length effect - Baddeley et al. (1975): one vs. many syllables • Short: stoat, mumps Greece, zinc • Long: rhinoceros, diphtheria, Australia, uranium harder to remember longer words How might this word length effect influence intelligence testing across cultures? - Many IQ tests use digit span tasks - Repeat back a list of digits • Maybe IQ scores are higher in languages with shorter number words?
Central Executive
•Coordinates information in the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad and pulls in information from long-term memory. •Called the attention controller → it determines how attention is focused on a specific task, how it is divided between two tasks, and how it is switched between tasks. •Suggests that this part of working memory and attention are essentially the same mechanism. •Same areas of the brain are activated by working memory tasks and attention tasks.
Central Executive duties in Phonological Loop & Visuospatial Sketchpad
•Coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad. →It directs attention and decides how to focus, switch, or divide attention.
What is the capacity of STM?
•Find out using a digit span test →Typical capacity is 5-9 items
Phonological Loop
•Holds verbal information for a few seconds →It uses auditory coding (inner voice) to hold information in memory →It also uses an articulatory rehearsal process, which allows information to remain in the store through rehearsal.
Visuospatial Sketchpad
•Holds visual and spatial information for a short period of time →Also thought to be involved in the creation of mental visual images in the absence of a physical visual stimulus.
Working Memory
•STM in the modal model consists of a single component, whereas working memory consists of a number of components. •Working memory emphasizes the processing that takes place in STM over its storage capacity.
Short-Term Memory
•STM is the memory system that holds small amounts of information for a brief period of time •STM's duration is about 15-20 seconds - w/o rehearsal •Rehearsal is repeating a stimulus over and over to keep it in STM
Sperling's Experiment: Partial Report Method
•See display & hear a tone immediately after seeing the display •With the partial report method, participants could report about 3 to 4 letters per row or about 82% of the items.
explicit memory components
□ Episodic Memory: Memory for personal events. The event's details are bound into an episode; a diary entry in your mind. □ Semantic Memory: Your general knowledge of facts - George Washington was our first president; the dictionary in your head.
LTM differs from STM in its basic properties
□ things fade from STM after 20-30 seconds, information in LTM can be permanent- unlimited duration. □ STM can only hold about 4-7 things, LTM can never be filled- unlimited capacity.
