Exam 2 Learning and Memory

Atkinson & Shiffrin Modal Model of Memory

An information processing approach to memory, where info flows from sensory storage, to short-term, to long-term; we process  information like a computer

Echoic Memory

auditory information; 2-3 seconds

Episodic Memory

Capacity to recollect single episodes of your life, it’s about moments and imagery is its central feature; specific and not generalized, unique to the individual

Explicit Memory

Declarative memory, you can say what it is; contains episodic and semantic memory

Iconic Memory

visual information; ½ sec

Implicit Memory

Nondeclarative memory, doesn't involve conscious awareness, memories that influence your behavior without being aware of it; can’t explain it but you know how to do it; conditioning, priming, physical skills; even people with severe amnesia usually retain implicit memories 

LTM

Explicit and Implicit memory; storage over extended periods of time; semantic 

Priming

How recent events affect how you interpret the world right now; exposure to something unconsciously influences how you respond to a related thing

Semantic Memory

Knowledge about the world, it’s about meaning and language is its central feature; definition of terms, schemas of how things usually go, generalized information

Sensory Memory

First memory area, has high capacity and short duration; there are separate stores for each modality (sense; echoic and iconic)

Sperling Study

Presented 4x3 grid of random letters for 50msec, compared traditional whole report with his new idea of partial report; concluded that we have a high capacity in our iconic stores, and that reporting an answer requires transfer of info to STM; studied echoic stores with shadowing tasks, found that echoic stores have a very large capacity, but only what one pays attention to will move to STM

STM

 temporary storage system that holds information for about 15-30sec; often thought of as a language-based system/acoustic

Articulatory Suppression

Saying something else while you try to mentally rehearse something will make it harder to remember; interrupts phonological loop (ex/repeating truman bulldogs while trying to remember swahili words)

Brown-Peterson Distractor

Blocks rehearsal; after hearing a stimulus you have to do an unrelated task before recall (ex/counting backwards); if you institute a distractor that hinders rehearsal, it will harm STM since STM is heavily dependent on rehearsal to maintain

Chunking

Grouping items together by what is meaningful to you helps increase capacity of verbal STM

Corsi Span test

The sequence on a grid, tracks how long of a sequence you can remember; tests your ability to retain object identity info (spatial=what); identity memory can be disrupted by competing identification task

Digit Span

Random numbers however many digits long (4, 5, 6, etc) used to test verbal STM capacity

Double-dissociation:

Want to see if 2 things are dependent on one another; 2 manipulations, find a way to mess with one without affecting the other and vice versa shows that they are independent form one another; in Kintsch and Bushke study where they were able to distinguish LTM and STM from each other with synonym task and homophone task

Kintsch & Bushke study

Demonstrated that STM and LTM differ in how they encode information by presenting three lists; one synonym list, one homophone list, and one control list. It showed that LTM is based on meaning (synonym list hurt performance on primacy effect) and STM is based on sound (homophone list hurt performance on recency effect)

Phonological Similarity Effect

Since you loop words mentally to rehearse them, it will hurt verbal STM if words are too similar in sound

Primacy Effect

LTM phenomenon; the first items in a list with be saved due to increased rehearsal of initial words; distraction prior to recall doesn’t affect it

Recency Effect:

Due to presence in STM; the last items in a list don’t have time to decay; distraction prior to recall disrupts it

Serial Position Curve:

Can measure both STM and LTM; memory favors the items at the beginning and end of a sequence (primacy and recency effect)

STM vs WM

Short-term is simple brief storage of limited information that contains both verbal and visual STM while working is a mental workspace that can manipulate and process information in order to perform cognitive tasks

Verbal STM

Limited capacity of 4-8 things, rehearsal is necessary, STM is acoustic, tested with serial recall task, digit span task, and Brown-Peterson distractor task

Visual Pattern span

The colored in boxes on a grid example; tests your ability to locate items in space (visual span=where); location memory can be disrupted by competing spatial task

Visual STM

Contains identification and spatial systems (what and where), limited capacity of 4 items or 4x4 grid, encoding is very quick, tested with Corsi span and visual pattern task

Word Length Effect

the longer the words are the harder they are to keep on a phonological loop, rehearse, and remember

Luck and Vogel

Found that visual STM has a limited capacity; performance begins declining above 4 items or above a 4x4 grid

Automatic Mode

Well-learned procedures can be monitored without conscious effort; driving a well-known route, signing your name, etc

Baddeley & Hitch study

Noticed that even while holding sound information in the Phonological Loop we can also process and manipulate information; developed a divided attention task; found that we can hold numbers in phonological loop while doing reasoning tasks, meaning short term memory was too simplified, working memory fits better

Baddeley’s Working Memory Model

Involves central executive controlling phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer

Central Executive

The director of all working memory; not itself a memory system, but rather a controller of attention, assigns tasks to the subsystems; either operates in automatic mode or supervisory attentional system

Episodic Buffer

Newest part of WM; multimodal memory store; attempts to explain the link between WM and LTM, attempts to explain how consciousness binds multiple inputs; we can never be so focused on something that we forget what we are; capacity of approx 4 coherent chunks

Nonword Repetition Test

can you remember words that aren't even real, yes but only if they are similar to something that already holds meaning; random words with no meaning are harder to remember

Phonological Loop

Maintains sound info by saying the words in your head on a loop with time playing a factor in its efficiency; contains inner ear and voice, important for language acquisition into LTM, capacity of this is a predictor for language and reading development

Supervisory Attentional System

Consciously directed mode; can focus on or divide attention as needed; crucial for successful performance of goal-directed behavior; driving on a busy highway, studying test material, etc

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

Image manipulation, we can visualize things and manipulate images in our head