Chapter 5: Short Term Memory & Working Memory

Reference: "Cognitive Psychology Connecting mind, Research and Everyday experience" Goldstein, E.B. (2019)

sensory memory

the retention, for brief periods of time, of the effects of sensory stimulation

long term memory

a system that can hold a large amount of information for years or even decades

persistence of vision

the continued perception of a visual stimulus even after it is no longer present

iconic memory

brief sensory memory for visual stimuli that lasts for a fraction of a second

echoic memory

brief sensory memory for auditory stimuli that lasts for a few seconds

modal model of memory

the model proposed by atkinson and shiffrin (1968) that describes memory as a mechanism that involves processing information through a series of stages, including sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory.

control processes

active processes that can be controlled by the person and may differ from one task to another, such as rehearsal

rehearsal

the process of repeating a stimulus over and over, often for the purpose of keeping it in short

chunking

combining small units into larger meaningful units

chunk

a collection of elements that are strongly associated with one another but are weakly associated with elements in other chunks

coding

the form in which stimuli are represented in the mind (e.g., visual, auditory, semantic)

phonological loop

the part of working memory that holds and processes verbal and auditory information

visuospatial sketch pad

the part of working memory that maintains and processes visual and spatial information

central executive

the part of working memory that coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad; it focuses, divides, and switches attention

episodic buffer

a component added to baddeley's (1974) original working memory model that serves as a "backup" store that communicates with both long term memory and the components of working memory

recall

a procedure in which participants are presented with stimuli and then, after a delay, are asked to remember as many of the stimuli as possible

digit span

the number of digits a person can remember

proactive interference

when information learned previously interferes with learning new information

retroactive interference

when new learning interferes with remembering old information

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

word length effect

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

phonological similarity effect

the confusion of letters or words that sound similar

encoding

the process of storing information in long term memory

retrieval

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

change detection

detecting differences between pictures or displays that are presented one after another

regarding paradigm shifts in psychology, 1) _______ is to 2) _______, as 3) _______ is to Noam Chomsky.

how long does memory last?

less than a second

who famously worked with dogs in discovering that pairing stimuli together can lead to unexpected responses?

Pavlov

which are the topics of focus in Neisser's book on cognitive psychology?

senses

which statement best describes the contribution of William James to Psychology?

despite working without modern imaging techniques his observations were largely in line with later findings