Short-term & Working Memory

Activity-silent working memory

Short-term changes in neural network connectivity that has been hypothesized as a mechanism for holding information in working memory.

Anders Ericsson et al. (1980)

Demonstrated effect of chunking - college student with average memory ability able to remember 79 digits without error by using details held in LTM to give meaning to strings of numbers.

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.

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

introduced the concept of working memory.

Baddeley et al. (1984)

found that simultaneously repeating “the, the, the . . .” whilst reading a list of words reduces the ability to remember them but also eliminates the word length effect, due to the elimination of rehearsal.

Baddeley's Working Memory Model (2000)

Model consisting of the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad and the central executive.

Brooks, Lee (1968)

found that interference can affect operation of visuospatial sketchpad (F imagining). Trying to perform too visuospatial tasks at once overloads it.

Central executive

The part of working memory that coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad. The “traffic cop” of the working memory system.

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.

Cognitive control

a set of functions, which allow people to regulate their behaviour and attentional resources, and to resist the temptation to give in to impulses

Control processes

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

Daneman and Carpenter (1980)

Investigated individual differences in working memory capacity, and how that related to reading comprehension.

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.

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.

Della Sala et al. (1999)

investigated use of visuospatial sketchpad by asking participants to recall patterns in small and large square grids. Recalled average of 9, possibly by chunking into smaller units.

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

auditory Echoic memory

Encoding

process of storing information in LTM

Episodic buffer

A component added to Baddeley’s original working memory model that serves as a “backup” store that communicates with both long-term memory 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)

indicates how much space is used in working memory during a task

Funahashi et al. (1989)

recorded neurons activity in monkey’s PFC while it carried out a delayed-response task. Found that neurons responded to square flashing in a particular location and continued to respond during the delay, so information about the object’s location remained available for as long as these neurons continued firing.

Gage, Phineas (1848)

damage to frontal lobe caused apparent personality change, linking that area of brain to personality and planning.

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.

Long-term memory (LTM)

can hold a large amount of information for years, with some lasting as long as you live

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.

Miller, George (1956)

summarised evidence on digit span that average capacity of STM is about five to nine items, and introduced the concept of chunking.

Mnemonics

any memory strategy or technique that improves encoding, retention, and/or retrieval of information.

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.

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.

Peterson & Peterson (1959)

used recall method to deduce that STM is 15-20 seconds if rehearsal is prevented.

Phonological loop

The part of working memory that holds and processes verbal and auditory information.

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.

Reading span test

The test used by Daneman and Carpenter to measure reading span.

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

Retrieval

process of remembering information that is stored in long-term memory

Sensory memory

an initial stage that holds all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second.

Sensory memory

brief stage of memory that holds information for seconds or fractions of a second.

Shepard and Metzler (1971)

investigated mental rotation by asking participants to determine if two pictures of 3D objects represented the same object. Higher degree of rotation = longer reaction time, indicating use of visuospatial sketchpad.

Short-term memory (STM)

a memory mechanism that can hold a limited amount of information for a brief period of time, usually only 15-20 seconds, unless there is rehearsal (such as repeating a telephone number) to maintain the information in short-term memory. Short-term memory is one of the stages in the modal model of memory.

Sperling, George (1960)

Asked how much information people can take in from briefly presented stimuli using letter grid (whole/partial/delayed report methods)

Stokes, Mark (2015)

activity-silent working memory. Stokes, Mark (2015)

Story mnemonic

a memory strategy that puts random items into a meaningful order within a story that can then be more easily remembered.

Structural features

types of memory indicated by boxes in models of memory, i.e. sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Visual icon

another name for iconic memory (icon means “image”)

Visual imagery

A type of mental imagery involving vision, in which an image is experienced in the absence of a visual stimulus.

Visuospatial sketch pad

The part of working memory that holds and processes visual and spatial information.

Vogel et al. (2005)

looked at control of attention by the central executive by using change detection task – participants with high-capacity working memory were less effected by distractors, concluding that some people’s central executives are more efficient at allocating attention than other

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.

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 (WM)

A limited-capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning.