Cognitive Psychology Chapter 5: Short-Term Memory and Working Memory

Articulatory rehearsal process

Rehearsal process involved in working memory that keeps items in the phonological store from decaying.

Articulatory suppression

Interference with operation of the phonological loop that occurs when a person repeats an irrelevant word such as "the" while carrying out a task that requires the phonological loop. ___ occurs when remembering the second list becomes harder because repeating "the, the, the …" overloads the phonological loop

Central executive

The part of Baddeleys working memory model that coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad. The "traffic cop" of the working memory system.

Change detection

Detecting differences between pictures or displays that are presented one after another.

Chunk

Used in connection with the idea of chunking in memory.A chunk is a collection of elements that are strongly associated with each other but weakly associated with elements in other chunks.

Chunking

Combining small units into larger ones, such as when individual words are combined into a meaningful sentence. Chunking can be used to increase the capacity of memory.

Control processes

In Atkinson and Shiffrin's modal model of memory, active processes that can be controlled by the person and may differ from one task to another. Rehearsal is an example of a control process.

Decay

Process by which information is lost from memory due to the passage of time.

Delayed 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. A cue tone that was delayed for a fraction of a second after the display was extinguished indicated which part of the display to report. See also Partial report method

Delayed response task

A task in which information is provided, a delay is imposed, and then memory is tested. This task has been used to study short-term memory by testing monkeys' ability to hold information about the location of a food reward during a delay.

Digit span

The number of digits a person can remember. Digit span is used as a measure of the capacity of short-term memory.

Echoic memory

Brief sensory memory for auditory stimuli that lasts for a few seconds after a stimulus is extinguished.

Episodic buffer

A component added to Baddeley's original working memory model that serves as a "backup" store that communicates with both LTM and the components of working memory. It holds information longer and has greater capacity than the phonological loop or visuospatial sketch pad.

Event-related potential (ERP)

an electrical potential recorded with disc electrodes on a person's scalp, that reflects the response many thousands of neurons near the electrode that fire together. The ERP consists of a number of waves that occur at different delays after a stimulus is presented and that can be linked to different functions.

Iconic memory

Brief sensory memory for visual stimuli that lasts for a fraction of a second after a stimulus is extinguished. This corresponds to the sensory memory stage of the modal model of memory. Visual

Memory

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

Mental rotation

rotating the image of an object in your mind (part of Visuospatial sketch pad)

Modal model of memory

The model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin that describes memory as a mechanism that involves processing information through a series of stages, including sensory, short-term and long-term memory. Called the modal model it contained features of many models that were being proposed in the 1960's.

Neural mind reading

Using a neural response, usually brain activation measured by fMRI, to determine what a person is perceiving or thinking.

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. A cue tone immediately after the display was extinguished indicated which part of the display to report. See also Delayed partial report method

Perseveration

Difficulty in switching from one behaviour to another, which can hinder a person's ability to solve problems that require flexible thinking. Perseveration is observed in cases in which the prefrontal cortex has been damaged.

Persistence of vision

The continued perception of light for a fraction of a second after the original light stimulus has been extinguished. Perceiving a trail of light from a moving sparkler is caused by the persistence of vision. See also Iconic memory.

Phonological loop

The part of Baddeleys model of working memory that holds and processes verbal and auditory information. Consists of two components.

Phonological similarity effect

An effect that occurs when letters or words that sound similar are confused. For example, T and P are two similar-sounding letters that could be confused.

Phonological store

Component of the phonological loop of working memory that holds a limited amount of verbal and auditory information for a few seconds.

Proactive interference

When information learned previously interferes with learning new information. See also Retroactive interference.

Recall

Subjects are asked to report stimuli they have previously seen or heard.

Rehearsal

The process of repeating a stimulus over and over, usually for the purpose of remembering it, that keeps the stimulus active in short-term memory.

Retroactive interference

When more recent leaning interferes with memory for something that happened in the past. See also Proactive interference.

Reading span

The maximum number of sentences that a person can read while simultaneously holding the last word of each sentence in memory. Has been used to measure both the storage and processing functions of working memory.

Sensory memory

A brief stage of memory that holds information for seconds or fractions of a second. The retention of the effects of sensory stimulation. It is the first stage in the modal model of memory. Buffer

Short term memory (STM)

A memory mechanism that can hold a limited amount of information for a brief period of time, usually around 30 seconds, unless there is rehearsal

It is one of the stages in the modal model of memory.

Structural features (memory models)

Types of memory indicated by boxes in models of memory. In the modal model, the types are sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Visual icon

Brief sensory memory for visual stimuli that lasts for a fraction of a second after a stimulus is extinguished.

Visual imagery

A type of mental imagery involving vision, in which an image is experienced in the absence of a visual stimulus. Visual imagery is what the Visuospatial sketch pad interprets

Visuospatial sketch pad

The part of working memory that holds and processes visual and spatial information. See also Central executive

Handles visual and spatial information and is therefore involved in the process of visual imagery.

Whole report method

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. See also Partial report method

Word length effect

The notion that it is more difficult to remember a list of long words than a list of short words.

Working memory

Baddeley and Hitch. Limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning.