PSY1004 Cognitive Psychology - Lecture 5: Memory I

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering sensory memory, short-term memory, working memory models, and declarative long-term memory systems from Lecture 5 of Cognitive Psychology (PSY1004).

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; an active behavior of neurons rather than a passive storage system.

Sensory Memory

The initial stage of memory that holds all incoming sensory information for seconds or fractions of a second before decaying rapidly.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

A memory system that holds small amounts of information—typically five to seven items—for a brief duration of approximately $15$ to $20\,\text{seconds}$; experienced subjectively as "the presence."

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

An archive of information about past events and knowledge that stretches from about $30\,\text{seconds}$ ago to as far back as one can remember, capable of storing large quantities of information for years or decades.

Modal Model of Memory

A theoretical model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin ($1968$) that treats sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory as structural features that work together at all times.

Control Processes

Active processes in the modal model of memory that can be controlled by the individual, including rehearsal, strategies to enhance memorability (e.g., mnemotechniques), and strategies of attention.

Decay

The vanishing of a memory trace due strictly to the passage of time and competing stimuli, serving as the primary form of information loss from short-term memory.

Persistence of Vision

The brief retention of the perception of light after the stimulus has ceased, explaining phenomena such as the trail of light from a moving sparkler and the continuous motion perceived across film frames.

Whole Report Method

A procedure in Sperling's ($1960$) sensory memory experiment where participants were asked to report as many letters as could be seen from a briefly flashed $12$-letter display, resulting in an average recall of $4.5$ out of $12$ letters ($37.5\%$).

Partial Report Method

A procedure used by Sperling ($1960$) where an immediate tone cued participants to report only a specific row of letters, resulting in an average recall of $3.3$ out of $4$ letters ($82\%$).

Delayed Partial Report Method

A procedure in Sperling's ($1960$) experiment where presentation of the row-identifying tone was delayed for a fraction of a second after letter offset, resulting in a rapid drop to $1$ out of $4$ letters ($25\%$).

Iconic Memory

Visual sensory memory in the modal model, characterized by very high capacity but rapid decay within seconds or fractions of a second.

Proactive Interference

The interference effect that occurs when previous knowledge or previously learned information hinders the encoding or recall of new information.

Retroactive Interference

The interference effect that occurs when newly acquired information interferes with the retrieval of previously learned or existing knowledge.

Digit Span Task

A common assessment measuring the number of digits or items a person can retain in short-term memory, typically yielding five to eight items (the "Magical Number $7 \pm 2$").

Chunking

A control process and learning strategy in which small individual units are combined into larger, meaningful collections to increase the functional capacity of short-term memory.

Chunk

A collection of elements strongly associated with one another but weakly associated with elements in other groups.

Change Detection Paradigm

An experimental task designed to assess visual short-term memory capacity while preventing verbal rehearsal and chunking strategies, using stimuli like colored squares or complex objects.

Working Memory (WM)

A limited-capacity dynamic system for the temporary storage and active manipulation of information during complex cognitive tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning, introduced by Baddeley and Hitch ($1974$).

Phonological Loop

The subsystem of working memory responsible for handling verbal and auditory information, comprised of the phonological store and the articulatory rehearsal process.

Phonological Store

The passive component of the phonological loop that has a limited capacity and retains auditory and verbal information for only a few seconds before decay occurs.

Articulatory Rehearsal Process

The active mechanism of the phonological loop responsible for internal rehearsal that refreshes memory traces and prevents information in the phonological store from decaying.

Visuospatial Sketch Pad

The component of working memory that maintains and manipulates visual and spatial information (visual imagery) in the mind in the absence of a physical sensory stimulus.

Mental Rotation Task

An experimental paradigm testing the visuospatial sketch pad in which reaction time increases proportionally with the angular degree of mental rotation required to evaluate whether two objects are identical.

Central Executive

The core control component of working memory that acts as an attention controller; it focuses, divides, and switches attention, accesses long-term memory, and suppresses irrelevant information.

Perseveration

A behavioral symptom characterized by repeatedly performing the same thought or action even when it fails to achieve the desired goal, typical of frontal lobe lesions causing damage to the central executive.

Reading Span Task

A diagnostic assessment of individual differences in working memory capacity in which participants read aloud sets of sentences and must subsequently recall the target word from each sentence.

Operation Span Task

A diagnostic tool for measuring working memory capacity where participants must verify mathematical equations while simultaneously retaining presented words for subsequent recall.

Phonological Similarity Effect

The finding that memory recall is poorer and letters or words are more easily confused when they sound similar to one another.

Articulatory Suppression

The reduction in working memory performance that occurs when speaking an irrelevant sound or word, which prevents the articulatory rehearsal process from maintaining information.

Word Length Effect

The phenomenon wherein memory for lists of short words is superior to that of long words, because longer words require more time to rehearse and produce during retrieval.

Episodic Buffer

A component integrated into Baddeley's revised ($2009$) working memory model that provides a greater capacity backup store, utilizes chunking, and facilitates communication between working memory components and long-term memory.

Consolidation

The neurobiological process of transferring and stabilizing information from working memory into long-term memory.

Serial Position Curve

A graphic plot illustrating that memory recall is best for items presented at the beginning of a list (primacy effect) and at the end of a list (recency effect), as demonstrated by Murdoch ($1962$).

Primacy Effect

The superior recall of items presented early in a sequence on a serial position curve, attributed to greater rehearsal and transfer into long-term memory.

Recency Effect

The superior recall of items presented at the end of a list on a serial position curve, attributed to items remaining active in short-term memory at the moment of test.

Recognition Memory

The cognitive ability to identify a previously encountered stimulus when presented with it again, typically preserving semantic content even if verbatim details are lost.

Double Dissociation

A research finding where brain damage in one area selectively eliminates function A while sparing function B, whereas damage in another area eliminates function B while sparing function A.

Patient H.M.

A famous neurological case whose surgical removal of the hippocampus preserved short-term memory but destroyed the capacity to transfer information into long-term memory, preventing the formation of new LTMs.

Patient K.F.

A neurological patient with parietal lobe damage from an accident who exhibited impaired short-term memory (severely reduced digit span) alongside intact, functional long-term memory.

Explicit Memory

Conscious, declarative long-term memory that can be intentionally recalled and articulated, consisting of episodic and semantic memory.

Implicit Memory

Non-conscious, non-declarative long-term memory revealed when past experiences influence behavior without conscious awareness, encompassing procedural memory, priming, and classical conditioning.

Episodic Memory

A subcategory of declarative long-term memory for specific personal events that involves mental time travel and a sense of reliving the past experience ("self-knowing").

Semantic Memory

A subcategory of declarative long-term memory that stores general facts and knowledge about the world without involving mental time travel ("knowing").

Autobiographical Memory

A person's memory for experiences from their own life that incorporates both episodic components (relived events) and semantic components (personal facts).