Sensory and Working Memory

Cog Exam 2

When did the idea of sensory memory start?

introspectionism

Span of Apprehension

how much stuff can go into consciousness at one time (bigger than what we can report)

Sperling’s Experimental Paradigm

had to remember/report as many stimuli as possible from a chart

What did Sperling’s Paradigm show?

we have a very brief form of storage (duration is small, capacity is large)

Masking

forgetting happens as new information comes in

Relevance of Clive (memory patient)

his short term memory was both good and bad; short-term and long-term memory are two different things

Relevance of Henry (HM)

had an intact short-term memory with retrograde amnesia; couldn’t “transfer” memories to long-term storage

Working Memory

short-term memory storage and cognitive functions (thinking)

Phonological Loop

phonological store and articulatory control process (auditory processing)

Phonological Store

stores two seconds of auditory information

Articulatory Control Process

the process of you talking to yourself

What predictions arise from the articulatory control process? (4)

• people who talk faster have larger capacity

• anyone has smaller capacity for long words

• words that sound similar should be easily confused

• if you busy articulators, phonological effects disappear

Visuospatial Sketchpad

visual mental imagery, tested using proactive interference

Episodic Buffer

where meaning is stored, less insulated than phon. loop and v/s sketchpad

What did Sperling argue?

a lot of stimuli enter iconic memory and decay quickly

What is iconic memory?

the shape of a stimulus, not semantic

How big is iconic memory?

large

How is iconic memory forgotten? (2)

spontaneous decay and erased (masking)

Echoic Memory

sensory code (echo), not semantic

How big is echoic memory?

small (milliseconds)

What did early studies show about a short-term info buffer?

a number-limited attentional filter beyond sensory memory

What did later studies show about a short-term info buffer?

capacity varies less when measured in chunks

Chunking

Combining several units into a larger, meaningful unit

Decay

spontanious forgetting of info

Interference

losing info as new info competes with it

Modal Model

emphasizes flow of information through the cognitive system by attention and rehearsal

Working Memory Model

visuospatial and auditory memory are separate

What are the three ways stimuli are represented in memory?

1. visuospatially

2. acoustically

3. semantically

T/F: The number of objects that visual working memory can hold depends on the visual complexity of

the objects

True

Why does a large working memory span help with reading comprehension?

Vocabulary and grammar