Structure of memory

short term memory

a simple storage buffer. Its capacity is influenced by practiced skills and strategies such as rehearsal and chunking.

working memory

A more complex system consisting of both a storage component and an executive attention component. Its primary function is to maintain memory representations despite concurrent processing, distractions, or attention shifts

Unlike STM, WM involves the active manipulation of stored information

working memory capacity

The extent to which a task requires WMC depends on the need to maintain activation of representations that would otherwise be lost to interference or decay.

what are the 2 categories of long term memory?

1. declarative (explicit)

2. nondeclarative (implicit)

declarative memory types

• episodic

• semantic

episodic memory

Memory for specific single episodes or events; described as "mental time travel."

semantic memory

Accumulative knowledge about the world; factual information.

types of nondeclarative memory

• procedural

• priming

• conditioning

procedural memory

Memories that cannot be consciously recalled, such as motor skills or habits.

priming

Implicit activation of concepts (e.g., recognizing degraded words).

conditioning

Associations formed through stimulus-response (e.g., Pavlovian conditioning).

recall

Participants must retrieve information from memory without the item being present

free recall

Recalling as much as possible in any order.

cued recall

Using associations (e.g., paired associates) to aid memory retrieval.

span tasks

Determining how many items (digits, words) an individual can hold in STM

recognition

Identifying previously seen "old" items among "new" items.

what are the 4 possible outcomes of the signal detection theory?

Participant Response	Item is New (Noise)	Item is Old (Signal)
"Old" (Accept)	False Alarm (Incorrect)	Hit (Correct)
"New" (Reject)	Correct Rejection (Correct)	Miss (Incorrect)

d prime

Represents memory performance and item familiarity. It is the distance between the "new" and "old" distributions

what does a d’ of 0 indicate?

total overlap (no memory), while higher values indicate better discrimination.

chucking

Long-term memory influences this by allowing individuals to group disparate data into meaningful units

cowan’s K value

a measure used to determine working memory capacity, particularly in "change detection" paradigms

whats the calculation of cowans K value?

set size x d’

slots model

Suggests memory has a fixed number of "slots." Once all slots are filled, no further information can be stored. If a single item is stored in multiple slots, it may be remembered with higher precision.

resource model

Proposes that working memory is a shared, continuous resource that can be poured into different items like water.

3 components of the resource model

1. flexibility

2. precision

3. attentional bias

flexibility

Resources can be allocated flexibly. If only one item is stored, it receives all resources, resulting in high precision.

precision

As the number of items (N) increases, the precision of each memory representation shows a smooth decline rather than a sudden "break" when slots are full.

attentional bias

Selective attention and upcoming eye movements (saccades) can bias the allocation of resources toward specific targets, increasing their retrieval precision even if they were never reached by the eyes.

when does WM increase with age

4-24 years old linked of the protracted development of the frontal lobe

what age is there a decline in STM?

18-69 involving encoding or delay distractions

spreading activation

LTM is a network of associations. Retrieval involves "spreading activation" through these associations to reach a specific memory.

dual coding hypothesis

Information is easier to remember if it is encoded through both verbal and visual routes. allow for two ways of retrieval, enhancing performance.

encoding specificity

Retrieval is most effective when the conditions at retrieval match the conditions at encoding.

cortical reinstatement

Successful retrieval involves the brain recreating the exact pattern of cortical activity that was present during the initial encoding phase.

amnesia resistance

Studies of amnesic patients show that while they perform poorly on explicit recognition tasks, they perform normally on implicit tasks, such as identifying visually degraded words (priming).

stress resistance

• Implicit learning is more resistant to stress than explicit learning.

• In studies involving motor skills (e.g., golf putting), groups forced to learn implicitly (using a concurrent task to prevent explicit strategy-building) maintained their performance under pressure,

• explicit learners showed decreased performance under high-anxiety conditions.