Cog L2 - Working Memory

Year one

What is metatheory?

A set of assumptions and guiding principles

What are the stages of memory? (3)

Encoding → storage → retrieval

What is encoding?

process of placing new information in memory (changes into a form that can be stored)

What is storage? (1→2; 1)

concerns the nature of memory stores

• where is it stored?

• how long will it last? (duration)

• how much can be stored? (capacity)

• what kind of information is stored?

known as memory (info stored in some way for later use)

What is retrieval?

recovering stored information from memory

What are the 2 forms of retrieval? (think learning)

1. recall

2. recognition

What is recall (form of retrieval)?

retrieve information from memory in response to a cue or question

What is recognition (form of retrieval)?

Refers to the ability to identify if encountered something before (ie. familiarity)

What does the Multi-store model do?

distinguish between short and long term memory

Features of the STM (5)

• limited capacity

• short duration

• physical/sensory codes

• trace decay/interference

• prefrontal cortex

Features of the LTM

• unlimited capacity

• indefinte duration/permanent

• meaning/semantic codes

• cue dependent forgetting

• hippocampus

Recall the MSM diagram:

Who is named for speaking about the Multi-store model?

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)

What date is provided for the MSM?

1968

The sensory store is modality specific. True or False?

True

Features of the sensory store: (3)

• modality specific

• holds information briefly (1-2s)

• attention occurs after information held in sensory stores (some info attended to is processed in the STM)

What are the two modalities of the sensory store for eyes and ears?

Iconic memory = visual store

Echoic memory = auditory store

Features of the short term store? (3)

• very limited capacity (7 ± 2 - Miller (1956))

• items vs chunks (integration of smaller units)

• info lost via displacement

What is displacement?

when store is full, new info pushes out the old

What is the test for displacement?

Serial recall task

What is the serial recall task? and its result

recall items in exact sequence. memory advantage for first and last items

What is the reason for the result of the serial recall task

the first couple points - primacy (interference)

the last couple - recency (displacement)

What is primacy? (3)

• involves long term memory

• earlier items in list get full attention

• slower presentation rate = longer time for attention, so more items remembered

What is recency? (3)

• new items displace old items

• last item = no new info

• redundant suffix item at end of list disrupts recency

Features of the LTM: (4)

• information transferred from short to long term store via rehearsal

• unlimited capacity

• stores info over a long time

• info lost through interference

What is interference?

some memories hinder the retrieval of other memories

Strengths of the MSM: (2)

• widely accepted that there are 3 distinct memory systems

• evidence to support separate short and long term memory stores

Weaknesses of the MSM: (3)

• Oversimplified as stores do not operate in a single, uniform way

• cannot explain implicit learning (eg. a 5 year old knowing English w/out the understanding grammar rules)

• information only transferred to LTM via rehearsal

Who is named for Levels of processing?

Craik & Lockhart (1972)

What is levels of processing? (2→1)

• major challenge to multi-store approach

• processes during learning determines information stored in LTM

  • memories are by-products of perception, attention and comprehension

Levels of processing range from…. (2)

• shallow (or physical) analysis

  • appearance/sound based

• deep (or semantic) analysis

  • info must have meaning

What are the 2 main assumptions of levels of processing?

1. level/depth effects memorability

2. deeper levels of analysis produce more elaborate, longer lasting and stronger memory traces

Who is named for the incidental learning task?

Craik & Tulving (1975)

What happened in the incidental learning test? (3)

• ptps not told there would be a memory test

• 3 tasks

  1. shallow-graphemic = word upper/lower case

  2. intermediate-phonemic = word rhymes with target?

  3. deep-semantic = word fits in sentence?

• assessed recognition memory

  • performance 3x higher with deep than shallow processing

What did Morris et al (1977) do? (2)

• 2 learning tasks

  1. shallow = rhyme

  2. deep = semantic

• 2 recognition memory tests

  1. standard = select list words from non-list words

  2. rhyme = select words rhyming with list words

What did Morris et al (1977) find?

• standard recognition test

  • usual superiority for deep processing

• rhyme recognition test

  • superiority for shallow processing (opposite to levels of processing account!)

• memory depends on the requirements of the memory test

  • successful retrieval requires that processing at time of learning is relevant to demands of the memory test

What is working memory?

Short-term memory used when performing complex tasks

What does working memory mean?

• can undertake various processes at the same time

• perform tasks not explicitly memory tasks (eg. mental arithmetic)

…. was replaced by the working memory

Short-term memory

Recall the working memory model diagram

Who is named for the Working Memory Model?

Baddeley (2012)

WMM: All components have limited capacity and work independently. What does this mean?

• if 2 tasks use the same component, they can’t be performed concurrently

• if 2 tasks used different components, possible to perform both equally well

What is the central executive?

• resembles attentional system

• most important and versatile component

• associated with several executive* processes

  • focus attention / concentration processes

  • dividing attention between tasks

  • switching attention between tasks

  • interfacing with LTM

    *those that organise and coordinate functioning of cognitive system to achieve current goals

What is the phonological store?

• 2 components:

  1. phonological store = speech perception

  2. articulatory loop = speech production (or rehearsal)

What has direct access to the store? why?

auditory word presentation

because it is already in the currency of the store (sound)

What has indirect access to the store and how? why?

visual word presentation - through the articulatory loop (speech production)

because it needs to be converted to the currency of the store (sound)

What is the phonological similarity effect?

poorer recall for similar sounding items than dissimilar ones

What does the phonological similarity effect do?

supports the notion that there’s a separate phonological store and articulatory loop…the role of articulatory suppression

Articulatory suppression….

…prevents rehearsal

What happens in modality dissociation?

• auditory list = similarity effect is still present

• visual list = similarity effect abolished

What is the Visuo-spatial sketchpad for?

• the storage and manipulation of visual patterns and spatial movement

  • remembering what something is (visual)

  • remembering where something is (spatial)

What are the 2 components of the VSS? and which name is associated with this?

• visual cache = stores info about visual form and colour

• inner scribe = processes spatial and movement info

Logie (1995)

What did Smith & Jonides (1977) do?

provided 2 stimuli and a probe and ptps had to decide whether probe was in the same location (spatial) or form (visual) as one of the presented stimuli

What did Smith & Jonides (1977) find?

• stimuli identical in both tasks (location or spatial Qs) but different brain activity (PET)

  • right hemisphere = spatial task

  • left hemisphere = visual task

• suggests there are 2 separate systems processing visual and spatial output?

What does the episodic buffer do?

• holds integrated information (or chunks) about episodes/events in multidimensional code (combo of visual, auditory, spatial, etc info)

• a buffer between other slave systems (storage of verbal and visual/spatial info from others)

Does the central executive control access to the episodic buffer?

It’s debated

Recall Darling et al (2017) WMM diagram

Visually presented words gain access to the phonological loop through….

…subvocal articulation