Short Term and Working Memory Lecture

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the fundamental concepts of short-term and working memory, including capacity limits, the modal model, key neuropsychological cases (H.M. and KF), and specific memory effects.

Sensory memory

A stage of the modal memory model where sensory info is kept for a few seconds or less.

Short term memory (STM)

A memory system for nonsensory info that is kept for more than a few seconds but less than a minute; it is discarded unless effort is put in to keep it active.

Long term memory (LTM)

A memory system that holds information for hours, days, weeks, or years, with a possibly unlimited capacity.

Digit span task

A task used to test an individual's ability to buffer items and measure short term memory capacity.

No. 7

The approximate number of meaningful items (e.g., words or numbers) that the short term memory can hold simultaneously.

Word length effect

The observation that it is easier to remember shorter words than longer words, as performance decreases as word length increases.

Primacy effect

The tendency to remember items at the start of a list better than those in the middle.

Recency effect

The tendency to remember items at the end of a list better; this effect can be eliminated using a distractor task like counting backwards.

H.M.

A patient with amnesia following surgery for intractable epilepsy; he showed defective LTM learning and an inability to acquire new info, despite normal short term memory.

KF

A patient whose LTM was in the normal range but whose STM was drastically impaired following a motorbike accident, providing evidence for double dissociation.

Central executive

A component of the working memory model that integrates information and negotiates various competing demands and habits.

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

A peripheral, modality-specific system in working memory used for spatial tasks, such as reproducing sequences of block taps.

Phonological loop

A peripheral, modality-specific system in working memory used for the storage and rehearsal of verbal information.

Modal model of memory

A model where memory consists of a flow of information passing through three stages: sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory.

Serial position curve

A phenomenon where items at the beginning and end of a list are better recalled than middle items due to primacy and recency effects.

Superspan lists

Lists of items that are longer than an individual's maximum capacity, leading to more errors in free recall tasks.

Concurrent load

The use of a secondary task, such as remembering between $0$ and $8$ random digits, to occupy STM while performing a primary reasoning task.

Sperling's sensory memory experiment

Research where rows of letters were flashed for $1/20 ext{th}$ of a second, showing that participants forgot items faster than they could recall them.

Iconic memory

A fast-decaying store of visual information.

Echoic memory

A fast-decaying store of auditory information.