PSYCH 240 EXAM 2 LEC 10 (BADDLEY)

Dissociation between long-term and short-term/working memory

• Evidence demonstrating that STM and LTM operate as distinct, independent memory systems.

  • Damage or manipulation can impair one system while leaving the other fully intact

• double dissociations in brain-damaged patients

  • HM had a impaired LTM, but intact STM and did not affect the other system

Recency effect

• Best recall for final items in a list

  • In free recall, recency relies on short-term storage and disrupted by filled delays vs earlier items rely on LTM

Acoustic coding

• Tendency for immediate STM tasks to store verbal items based on sounds rather its meaning

  • leads to errors with similar-sounding letters/words

Modal model (three-stores model)

Theory memory consists of three subsystems

• Sensory memory

• STM

• LTM

Sensory memory

• ultra-short-term memory stage

• Brief hold of environmental stimulus and lasts for less than a second that process raw info before feeding into STM

Short-term memory

• Temporary buffer from which memory trace fades spontaneously unless revived by rehearsal

• Weaker vers. of LTM

Long-term memory

• In Modal models, holding an item in the short-term store facilitates its transfer into long-term memory.

• Longer an item resided in the short-term store = greater probability to be learned

Levels of processing (depth of processing)

• Probability of an item stored in long-term retention increases as it is processed in deeper levels (deep semantic coding)

Individual differences (between ppl) in WM

• WM & Intelligence Link: People with higher working memory capacity perform better on complex reasoning and fluid intelligence tasks.

• Vulnerability to Interference: Lower capacity is linked to greater interference effects (trouble filtering out or ignoring irrelevant info).

• Serial Position Testing Method: Measured using tasks like the serial position task to see how recall drops across a sequence of items.

Working memory span (reading span)

• Defined as largest # of sentences that can be processed and final words can be recalled

  • Assesses individual's WM ability to simultaneously process and store verbal information.

Tripartite theory of WM (Baddeley + Hitch)

• 1 Main system = Central Executive

• 2 domain-specific storage sub-system = Visuo-Spatial sketch pad or Phenological loop

Central executive

• Complex + least understood component of working memory

• Attentional processor that coordinates info between buffer systems and LTM

• Translates incoming stimuli and information into goal-directed actions and decisions.

  
  

Phonological loop

• Specialized for storing and manipulating speech-based and auditory information

• Two components:

  • Verbal Store

  • Articulatory rehearsal process

Visuospatial sketchpad

• Devoted to visual imagery + spatial processing

  • Stimulus from LTM or directly visual perception

• Performance disrupted bc of requiring concurrent visual or spatial activity, inconsistent with image being maintained

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Frontal lobe syndrome (central executive dysfunction)

• Damage to the frontal lobes causing a loss of top-down executive control over behavior.

  • Patients have distractibility

  • Patients have perseveration

Perseveration

• Symptom of central executive dysfunction

• Difficulty breaking action or rule even after it is wrong or inappropriate

  • generating endless loop of apologizes

Distractibility (utilization behavior)

• Symptom of central executive dysfunction

• Automatic triggering of actions by immediate environmental objects

  • Will grab a glass on table and then drink from it

Verbal store

• Passive, acoustic component of the phonological loop that holds speech-based memory traces for 2 seconds

Articulatory loop

• Active control component of the phonological loop responsible maintaining decaying memory traces through silent inner speech

  • i.e. speaking name overtly or subvocally

Subvocal rehearsal

• The process of silent "inner speech" carried out by the articulatory loop to maintain memory traces in working memory

Phonological similarity effect (same as acoustic confusability)

• Confuse similar speech sounds when they are in an itemized list

• Harder to recall in order than in lists with distinct sounds

Irrelevant speech effect

• The impairment of immediate serial recall for visually presented items caused by simultaneous background spoken material

  • specific type of structural interference where task-irrelevant sounds automatically enter the phonological store and corrupt active memory traces

Word length effect

• The finding that memory span is significantly larger for short words than for long words

Articulatory suppression

• The technique of occupying the articulatory loop by repeating an irrelevant sound out loud

  • saying "the, the, the" while attempting to remember information