Lecture 3 - Working Memory

working memory (WM)

-storage and processing of goal-relevant information in the present moment in the physical absence of this information

-can be manipulated and make adaptions → active state

features of wm

-keeping track of lots of different elements of information

-integrating sensory input

-liaising with LTM

-integrating elements of information to form coherent memories and representations of something you’re engaged with

-directing and maintaining goal-orientated behaviour

flexibility

-hold anything we want to keep track of in wm

-make arbitrary relationships between items

limited

-cannot hold too much information in WM → limited in this ability

wm experiments

-encoding → present lists of memoranda

-retention interval → then remove the list we want participants to recall → change length of interval

-retrieval → ask participants to retrieve items of information

-DV likely going to be the proportion of items recalled in correct position - serial position

WM vs LTM

• WM → active, relevant to goal, immediate use, limited capacity

• LTM → remote, needs to be cued, everything learned, permanent, unlimited

multicomponent model (baddeley & hitch)

-hierarchical organisation

-multiple components with functional responsibilities

-interaction of attention, LTM with present stimuli

central executive (multicomponent model)

-in charge of subsystems for processing information and keeping it in mental workspace

-directs attention as to where we maintain and process information

phonological loop (multicomponent model)

-processes auditory and phonological information

-even if process words in a visual capacity (text input) it gets converted into phonological representation and then passed into phonological short term

-to hold onto this information will sub-vocally rehearse this in the articulatory loop

visual spatial sketchpad (multicomponent model)

-processes visual-spatial information

episodic buffer (multicomponent model)

-binds representations from subsystems into a single coherent representation which can be passed onto LTM

limits of multicomponent model

-taste, olfaction, haptics not formal components and less researched