Working Memory

Week 6: Working Memory System (acquisition/storage/retrieval, route into memory, working memory closer, entering long-term stage, organizing/memorizing, studying memory acquisition)


Acquisition, Storage, Retrieval

  • one way to frame learning & memory (ASR)

  • analogy to creating storing, opening a computer file

  • Acquisition: processing of gaining information and placing it into memory

  • Storage: holding the information in memory until it is needed

  • Retrieval: locating the needed information and brining it into active use

The Route Into Memory

  • Atkinson-Shiffrin Modal Memory Model

    • Sensory Memory: plays minimal role in modern theorizing

    • Short Term Memory: where info is held while in use, replaced by working memory in modern theories, better understood as a status rather than a place

    • Long Term Memory: contains all of one’s knowledge and beliefs. more permanent and larger

  • Classic Experiment (1960) Whole-Report vs Partial- Report (limits of iconic memory)

Sensory Memory

  • iconic Memory hold more information than echoic memory (I 75%, E 55%)

  • echoic hold information for longer than ionic memory (I 1s, E is 4s)

  • Working Memory — a dynamic form of short-term storage, like a status, contains currently activated ideas/thoughts

  • limit capacity (magical number 7 ± 2), chunking

    • limited duration 20 seconds without rehearsal

      • rehearsal: receptively verbalizing or thinking about the information

      • working memory = temporary, limited, easy

      • long term memory= long lasting, enormous, effortful, difficult

  • recall likelihood is influenced by item’s serial positinon

  • primacy effect: better memory for the few items relative to middle items

  • recency effect: better memory for last few items, last few are not displaced by future items

  • George Sperling Classic Experiment (1960) whole report vs partial report—limits of iconic memory

  • recall likelihood is influenced by the item’s serial position, several experiments support the modal model

  • the manipulation of working memory should affect the recall of recent items but not items presented earlier in the list

    • delaying recall with a different task displaces content in working memory

    • early items should not be affected because long term memory does not depend on the current activity

  • long term memory retrieval activates hippocampus

  • working memory retrieval activated perirhinal cortex

  • virtually all mental activities require working memory (used with multiple elements)

  • to measure working memory we want to measure whether the capacity changes when we process information at the same time

  • chunking reduces working memory load, but does not increase its capacity

  • digit-span task: participants hear a series of digits read to them and must immediately repeat them back (list length is increased until memory fails)

    • digit-span addresses only working memory capacity, not its active nature

  • working memory is a status, not a place, no specific location in the brain

  • operation span measures the capacity when working memory is working (like reading span)

    • working memory capacity correlates strongly with scores on reading comprehension tests, reasoning tests, and SATS

  • The working memory system (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974)

    • central executive: set of processes that govern the selection and sequence of thoughts/makes decisions/plan responses

    • visuospatial buffer/visuospatial sketch pad: visual material and imagery

    • articulatory rehearsal loop/phonological loop: subvocalization (silent speech) to launch rehearsal loop, phonological buffer passively stores the sound representations (internal echo)

  • a fourth component (episodic buffer) has been proposed

  • concurrent articulation tasks support model of the articulatory rehearsal loop

    • visuospatial buffer: stage of visual materials (mental images)

    • episodic buffer: helps central executive organize information into chronological sequence

Long Term Storage

  • maintenance rehearsal: thinking about the material in a mechanical way: repetition

  • relational or elaborative rehearsal: thinking about the material in terms of meaning, relating the items to each other and what one already knows

    • relational rehearsal is superior to maintenance rehearsal for long term memory

    • repeated exposure does NOT guarantee memory

  • incidental learning: learning in. the absence of an intention to learn

  • intentional learning: deliberate, with the expectation that memory will later be tested (little to no effect)

    • shallow processing: superficial engagement with the material (leads to poor memory)

      • ex: is the word dog in lowercase letters or uppercase

    • deep processing: requires thinking about the meaning of the material (effects are strong)

      • ex: does the word dog fit in the sentence? .. he walked his..

  • depth of processing promotes recall by facilitating later retrieval

  • learning as a way to establish indexing —> a path to the information

  • connections between to-be remembered items, memories, and contexts facilitates retrieval

  • elaborate sentences lead to richer retrieval paths, words are more likely to be we memorize well when we find order in the material ourselves

  • mnemonic strategies improve memory through organization (first letter mnemonics)

    • visualization strategies, peg-word systems

  • memory is facilitated by organizing and understanding, contributions come from memorizer

  • acquisition, storage, and retrieval are not easily separable

  • effective learning depends on how the information will later be retrieved

  • new learning is grounding in previous learned (knowledge