Human Cognition Chapter 6

The process of memory

Acquisition, storage and then retrieval.

Acquisition

The process of gaining information and placing it into memory

Storage

Holding this information in memory

Retrieval

Locating the information in storage and bringing it into active use-”remembering”

The modal model of information processing

Incoming information goes into the sensory (iconic/echoic memory) then it gets maintence in short-term memory. If there is no information loss it will go into long-term memory which you can use retrieval to switch it back to short-term memory and use it. Retrieval “activate” long-term memories. Working memory is a status not a place.

Are working memory and long-term memory reality different?

Is working memory vs long-term memory distinction just semantics, or is it meaningful?

Differences are the size of the stores, ease of entry, ease of retrieval, and fragility.

Because these functional and structured differences exist, the distinction is meaningful and not just a matter of semantics

Size of the stores

Working memory has a limited capacity (often cited as 3-5 meaningful chunks or items. Information is transcient, lasting only seconds to a couple of minutes unless actively rehearsed or manipulated (eg holding a phone number in your head just long enough to type it). Long-term has a vast, virtually limitless capacity. Can store information, life experiences, skills. and knowledge across days, years, or an entire lifetime

Ease of entry

Information enters working memory through active attention, while long-term memory requires processes like encoding and rehearsal.

Ease of retrieval

Information in working memory is readily available for immediate use, unlike retrieving information from long-term memory requires a search or cueing process

Fragility

Working memory is highly susceptible to interference and decay (fragile), while long-term memory is more stable and durable over time

Working VS Long Term Memory Experiment

Hear a list of 30 words (bicycle, artichoke, radio, chair, palace). Followed immediately by recall-repeat as many words as you can remember, in any order you choose. This experiment is a way to test how much information a person can hold in their immediate consciousness versus how much they can actually store for the long term.

Experiment first stage

You are presented with the list of 30 words. This acts as the stimulus. During this stage, your working memory is heavily taxed as it tries to hold onto the words in the sequence they are presented

Second stage of experiment

The “free recall” phase, where you immediately attempts to repeat as many words and possible in any order. This part of the experiment measures working memory capacity and memory strength

Relationship between serial position and likelihood of recall”

Primacy effect and the recency effect

The primacy effect

More likely to remember the first few words on the list. Extra attention to initial words. The tendency to remember the first items in a list better than the middle items because they have been rehearsed more and moved into long-term memory.

The Recency effect

More likely to remember the last few words on the list. 5-6 words in working memory. The tendency to remember the most recent items in a list better because they are still present in your short-term or working memory

Our interpretation of the primacy/recency effects hinge on working memory and long-term memory being functionally seperate

Can we test this prediction? Adjust the experiment-instead of immediate free recall, do a short task requiring working memory resources (count backwards from 200). Result-when you limit the contribution of working memory, the Recency effect goes away

What if we manipulate long-term memory?

Adjust the experience-slow down the presentation of the list to allow for more rehearsal. Result-when you increase rehearsal time, earlier items benefit, but no benefit to the later items.

Working memory VS long-term memory

The primacy and recency effects rely on separate mechanisms (different manipulations impact the effects independently)

Working memory is functionally distinct from long-term memory

Measuring working memory

Working memory is necessary for coordinating multiple pieces of information.
Large individual differences in cpaacity

Measuring capacity

The digit span task. Hear a series of digits and immediately repeat them back in the same order (in contrast to free recall), do this with longer sequences until you start to produce errors (>7 or 8 digits) and average capacity

Average capacity

Around 7 items (7 plus or minus)

What is an item?

Single digit in the series. The capacity is the total number of these individual digits (items) a person can successfully repeat in the correct order before making errors. For example, if a person repeats the sequence “5-8-2-1-9-4-3”, they have successfully recalled 7 items

Chunks

Chunking is flexible and variable (individual differences and task dependent). Consider a letter-span task-chunks can be letters or syllables, so remembering 7 plus or minus 2 chunks might look like a lot more information. Chase and Ericsson studied a track and field fan-3,4,9,2-3 minutes and 49.2 seconds, and highlights different strategy uses, not changes to capacity

Chase and Ericsson studied a track and field fan

3,4,9,2- means 3 minutes and 49.2 seconds

Digit span doesn’t capture the “active” nature of working memory. Measuring capacity-The operation span task. Operation depends on task-reading span task. Read aloud a series of sentences. Due to his gross inadequacies, his position as director was terminated abruptly. This is possible, of course, that life did not arise on Earth at all.

After reading all sentences, recall each sentences final word. Locate upper limit on performance=working memory capacity. Takes emphasis off “items” per second, more “active” use of working memory

Measuring capacity-The operation span talk

Is this valid? People with greater working memory capacity (measured by the o-span task) have advantages in tasks that require coordinating different pieces of information (reasoning, reading comprehension)

The working memory system

Working memory is a system with several components/processes. Executive control processes-govern selection and sequence of thought. Has the Articulatory rehearsal look

Articulatory rehearsal loop

Subvocalization, phonological buffer. Can rely on this sub-process. Takes few resources and lets executive control focus on the primary task.

Subvocalization

Silent speech

Phonological buffer

Passive storage of sound

How do we know about the articulatory rehearsal loop

“Sound alike” errors happen in auditory and visual tasks. Concurrent articulation tasks

Concurrent Articulation Task

Also known as articulatory suppression. During a working memory span task, say something out loud (“tah tah tah”, count, say a word, etc) Requires the mechanisms for speech production, making them unavailable for the rehearsal loop, and capacity drops to 5-6 items with articulatory suppression

Working memory is a system with several components/processes

Executive control processer. Articulatory rehearsal look. Subvocalization-phonological buffer. Visuispaital buffer, episodic buffer

Subvocalization

Silent speech, inner voice)

Phonological buffer

Passive storage of sound, inner ear

Visuospatial buffer

Stores visual materials as mental images (“vision-spaital sketch pad”

Episodic buffer

Helps organize information into chronological sequence

Working memory is dynamic and relies on active processes that vary based on the mondality of the task

Consider someone who has been deaf since birth-don’t rely on an “inner ear” for rehearsal, instead rely on a “inner hand”. working memory is distrusted if they move their hands. Observe memory errors that suggest they swap worst for other words that have similar signs

Visual working memory

Visual working memory-maintaining information in the “mind’s eyes”, usually measured without the use of articulatory rehearsal.

How can we minimize the contribution of rehearsal

To minimize rehearsal, you can have someone perform a verbal task, like counting out loud, at the same time they are trying to remember a visual image. You can also use complex shapes or patterns that are too difficult to describe with words

Visual stimuli harder to label (slight changes in hue)

Articulatory suppression. Say out loud “tah tah tah”. This experiment is designed to see if we use words to help us remember things we see. The top part shows a normal memory test where you just look at colours and remember the,. This is the baseline. The bottom part adds a distinction-you have to say “tah tah tah” out loud while trying to remember the colours. This is called articulatory suppression. It stops you from being able to “talk” to yourself in your head (like saying “red, blue,green”) to keep information alive. If you find it much harder to remember the colours while saying “tah tah tah”, it proves that you were actually using a verbal “inner voice” to help your visual memory

Individual differences sin visual working memory capacity

Are stable across time. This means that your ability to hold visual information in your mind is a relatively consistent trait. While you might have a “bad day” due to tiredness or distraction, your fundamental capacity for visual working memory doesn’t drastically change from week to week or year to year. It is a stable characteristic of your cognitive profile

Individual differences aren’t driven by storage space, but by control

How good are you at keeping irrelevant information out: This is the most important distinction. Many people assume that people with better memory just have a “bigger hard drive” (more storage space). However, research suggests that most people have similar amounts of “space”

The difference lies in control

Think of your working memory like a desk. A person with high capacity isn’t necessarily using a bigger desk; they are just much better at cleaning away the clutter. They are highly efficient at keeping irrelevant information (the “clutter”) from taking up space, which leaves more room for the things they actually need to rememeber

Attentional filtering

Using attentional focusing to selectively encode relevant items. This is the specific mechanism used to achieve that control. It is the process of using your focus like a spotlight. Instead of trying to absorb everything in your field of vision, you use attentional filtering to selectively “encode” (record) only the important details. By focusing your attention intensely on a specific relevant items, you effectively “filter out” the background noise, ensuring that only the useful information gets stored in your working memory.

CDA (Contraloteral delay activity)

Event-related EEG component. It is a specific pattern of brain activity that researchers track using EEG to see how you are holding information in your mind.

CDA Example

When you are asked to a objects (like colours or shapes) and remember them, your Brian has to actively “work” to keep those images alive in your consciousness. The CDA is the electrical signal that proves your brain is doing that work. It is called “contralateral” because if you are looking at a display on the left side of your vision, the activity is strongest in the right hemisphere of your brain (and vice versa)

CDA X Axis (Time)

The arrow at the bottom marks the exact moment the objects appear on the screen (the “onset”). Onset of to-be-remembered display

CDA Y Axis (Amplitude)

This represents the strength of the brain’s electrical signal

CDA Curve

Notices how the line shoots up quickly after the objects appear and then stays high (a “plateau”). This tells researchers that the brain isn’t just reacting to seeing the objects; it is actively maintaining them. The higher that plateau is, the more items the person is successfully holding in their visual working memory.

Why the CDA matters

Scientists use the CDA to measure “capacity”. By looking at the height of that curve, they can determine exactly how many items a person can actually hold in their mind before their memory starts to fail

Filtering out individual differences

Individual differences in visual working memory capacity depend more on the ability to filter out irrelevant information than on the size of visual working memory stores

Encoding into long-term memory

Transferring information into long-term memory effort and engagement.

CDA graph explained

The first time (blue line) when you see something brand new, your brain has to work incredibly hard to figure it out and remember it. This “had work” shows up as a high signal on the graph. The 8th time (red line) once you’ve seen it many times, your brain doesn’t have to work nearly as hard because it already knows beta it is. Because the work is easier, the signal on the graph is lower. In short-high signal=high effort (learning something new). Low signal=low effort (doing something you already know)

Non visual information

Reminder-primacy effect, The more you rehearse something (the more attention you can devote to it), the better you remember it

Types of reheasal

Maintenance rehearsal, relational/elaborative rehearsal. Highlights the effort that is required for long-term memory storage

Maintenance Rehearsal

Focus on the items themselves (rate and mechanical)

Relational/Elaborative Rehearsal

Focus on what the item means and how it relates to other items. Much greater long-term benefit.

Exposure vs learning

Exposure to something (even repeated exposure) isn’t enough to ensure precise long-term memory encoding. This warns that simply seeing something doesn’t mean you have learned. The concept-you can look at an object (like the bicycle shown) over and over again, but if you aren’t activating “encoding” it (thinking about its parts, its functioning , or how it relates to other bikes), it won’t stay in your long-term memory. The big takeaway-repeated exposure is not the same as actual learning

Encoding into long-term memory requires effort, but does it require intention?

Intentional vs incidental learning. List of 24 words. One ground top to remember them for a test-intentional. One group asked if each word contained the letter e-unintentional, minimal engagement (shallow processing), one group asked to report how many letters each word contained-unintentional, minimal engagement (shallow processing), and one group asked to rate how pleasant each word was unintentional, most engagement (deep processing)

Engagement (level of processing)

Is more important for memory than intention

Why does deeper processing lead to better memory?

Connections faciliate retrieval. A simple memory (eg park) has few connections. A deeper memory (eg the specific park by your house) is linked to multiple cues like “your dog”, “your car”, or “your feelings about parks”

More connections=more retrieval pathways to activate the information

Example-Tying a string on your finger acts as a visual cues that activated the item in memory because it is physically connected to it

Mnmonix strategies-techinques for improving meory

Acronyms (ROYGBIV, HOMES), mental imagery (remember the word pair eagle-train), peg-word systems (one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, etc)

Memorizing

Does not promote meaningful engagement. Only provides one to two connections, often not meaningful.

The role of understanding in remembering

You will remember more information more accurately if you understand it

Modal model of memory processing definition

A theory suggesting that information flows through three stages-sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

Updates to the modal model

Refinements to the original theory that account for more complex processes, such as the distinction between passive short-term storage and active working memory

Working memory definiton

A cognitive system that holds and actively manipulates information in the short-term to perform complex tasks like reasoning, comprehension, and learning

Visual Working Memory definition

The component of working memory specifically responsible for the temporary storage and manipulation of visual and spatial information

Digit span defnition

A test of working memory capacity that measures how many numbers a person can repeat in order immediately after hearing them

Operation system definition

A more complex measure of working memory that requires a person to hold information in mind while simultaneously performing a mental task, such as math

Working memory capacity definition

The total amount of information that an individual can activity hold and manipulate at any given moment

Maintenance rehearsal definition

The process of repeating information over and over (rate learning) to keep it in short-term memory, without necessarily making sense of it

Elaborative rehearsal definition

The process of connecting new information to existing knowledge or meanings to ensure it is encoding into long-term memory

Retrieval pathways definitions

The various mental connections to “routes” that allow you to access a piece of stored information from your long-term memory

Visual working memory capacity definition

The specific limit on how visual information a person can hold and manipulate in their working memory at one time