Cognitive Psych Exam 2

Short Term Memory

The memory system that’s responsible for holding onto a small amount of info that has been recently taken in from the environment

Now called working memory

• Working - what you’re consciously thinking about

Long Term Memory

Has a large capacity and contains your memory for experiences and info throughout your lifetime

Chunk

A memory unit that consists of several components that are strongly associated with one another

Brown/Peterson and Peterson Technique

Presenting participants with some items that they are instructed to remember, then perform a distracting task, then recall items

Showed our memory is fragile for material stored for just a few seconds

With interference, 50% of info in STM is lost in 3 seconds

Rehearsal

Repeating items silently

Serial-position Effect

Refers to the U-shaped relationship between a words position in a list and its probability of accurate recall

Recency Effect

Better recall of things at the end

Primacy Effect

Better recall of things at beginning

Semantics

The meaning of words and sentences

Proactive interference

people have trouble learning new material because previously learned material keeps interfering with new learning

Old info interferes with new info

Difference Between STM and WM

STM - George Miller

• Before 1974

• Unitary (STM is held in one place, 7+- 2)

• Passive (not doing much, info can flow through)

WM - Baddeley

• After 1974

• Multiple components (visuospatial and phonological locations)

• Active (Can manipulate - ex: digits backwards)

• Present numbers → do spatial reasoning task (A B, does B follow A?) → try to recall series of numbers = high accuracy and fast reaction time for both

Classic STM research

George Miller

Examined capacity and duration

The Magical Number Seven

• 1956, pre cog revolution

Learning Phase

Associate stimuli with numbers

Use “raw” stimuli with no past associations

STM Test

Presentation Phase

• Present random order of stimuli

Rehearsal Phase

• Remember order of stimuli in ones mind

Recall Phase

• Repeat order of stimuli by their numbers

(lacked ecological validity)

Stimuli in Millers Article

Pitches (capacity of about 6)

Loudness (capacity of about 5)

Saltiness (capacity of about 4)

Points on a Line (capacity of about 10)

Multiple storage spaces!

Capacity of Stimuli Mixed Together

Pitch and loudness: 6

Sweet and salty: 5

Quantity matters, quality doesn’t

Release from Proactive Interferene

Performance from a new category of items is almost as high as first

Information Processing Appraoch

Our mental processes are similar to operations of a computer

Info progresses through our cog system in a series of stages, one at a time

Atkinson-Shiffron Model

Memory involves a sequence of separate steps, in each step info is transferred from one storage area to another

Could rehearse forever without interference

Sensory Memory

A storage system that records info from each of the senses with reasonable accuracy

• holds for 2 or less seconds

Working Memory

Brief, immediate memory for the limited amount of material that you are currently processing

Phonological Loop

Processes a limited number of sounds for a short period of time

Subvocalization

Silently pronounce things in head

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Processes visual and spatial info

Faces, objects, location

2 Components

• Inner Scribe: locations and movement (dorsal stream)

• Visual Cache: shapes, objects, faces (ventral stream)

Central Executive

Integrated info from phonological loop, visuospation sketchpad, and epidodic buffer

Helps direct attention to one or the other

Corsi Block Test

Point to correct order of blocks

Visual Pattern Test

Fill in correct blocks on grid