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Exam 2 psych 320 ch.5

Terms in this set (35)

Modal Model of Memory:
Incoming info > Sensory memory > Short term memory > Long term memory
What is sensory memory?
- a brief stage of memory that holds info for seconds or fractions of a second
- A memory system that stores the "trace" of information received by receptor cells
A different store for each sensory system
What is sensory memory for hearing?
echoic
what is sensory memory for vision?
iconic
What is persistence of vision and why does it occur? How does it relate to movies?
- Multiple discrete images blend into a single image, allowing us to perceive motion from still images
What is the Sperling Partial Report Technique? Be able to describe it (method and results) and explain what it tells us about the capacity and duration of sensory memory.
- Found that complex materials were difficult- people could only report about 4 items accurately.
- Subjects reported two "introspections"
§ they had seen the whole array but "forgot" it while reporting
§ the array seemed to fade but was available to examine mentally even after it disappeared from the screen.
- (T D R S S N B P G Z M Q) Sperling devised a way to test these introspections)
- Whole report: 4-5 letters. Invariant over a number of letters and exposure duration. What happens to the other letters?
- Get in but can't be reported
Why do we have rapid forgetting in sensory memory? Short duration (300ms-1m) What is the evidence that this is due to decay? What is the evidence that this is due to interference?
Rapid decay: memory of letters rapidly decays in just a few milliseconds - due to TIME Interference: memory of the letters interferes with each other, preventing you from remembering all of them - due to DISTRACTION
Decay = loss due to time
Interference = loss due to distraction/ overload
What is short-term memory?
- A memory mechanism that can hold a limited amount of information for a brief period of time, usually around 30 seconds unless there is a rehearsal to maintain the information in STM.
- Basically, everything that's in consciousness (or super recently in consciousness)
- Examples: phone numbers
- A popular, public misconception is that short term memory lasts hours or days.
What is its duration and capacity?
5-7 items between 15-20 seconds
What is the Brown-Peterson Procedure
- List of Trigrams (L Z T)
- Count backwards by 3 (100 - 97 - 94 - 91 . . . )
- Recall after 3-18 seconds
- In each trial:
§ Read a three letter string (e.g., TRQ)
§ Read a three digit number (e.g., 555)
§ Count backwards by threes (silently)
§ E.g., for 555, count 552, 549, 546 . . .
§ When the word "stop" appears, write down the 3 letters Look to the left column to read the next string
results of brown peterson procedure
- Forgetting must be due to Proactive Interference
- Proactive Interference: Information that was learned previously interferes with learning new information.
- On the first trial, there is very little forgetting no matter how long subjects have to count backwards before recalling the trigram
- Digit Span Task Most people remember 5-9 digits
What is chunking?
Chunking is when you chuck things to remember them
Ex:
Remember the following number: 1492177618122001 chunk it by American history 1492, 1776, 1812, 2001
Remember the following trigrams: Ilo vep syc hol ogy = I love psychology
What is the magical number?
- Seven plus or minus two
What is working memory and why has it largely replaced the term short-term memory?
- "A limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning"
Baddeley's original working memory model
- Visuospatial sketchpad > central executive > phonological
What is the phonological loop? What kind of information does it hold and process?
- Verbal and auditory information
What are its two components of phonological loop?
Phonological Store
Articulatory Rehearsal Processes
Phonological Store
- limited capacity
- holds information for only a few seconds
Articulatory Rehearsal Processes
- keeps items in the phonological store
- translates info into an auditory code
- keeps items in the phonological store from decaying
Phonological similarity:
§ You are asked to remember a series of letters in the order they are presented
§ F If the letter is actually "F", which mistake are you more likely to make? E or X = X
§ Visual presentation, but phonological similarity affects recall
Articulatory suppression:
§ Repeating the word "the" uses your articulatory rehearsal processes, leaving you little to no processes left to rehearse the words 5
Word length effect:
§ Working memory is affected by Word Length
§ Longer words take longer to read, rehearse
§ INCREASING AGE ! INCREASING ARTICULATION RATE ! INCREASING DIGIT SPAN
Differences in Digit span across languages can be explained by differences in reading time
How is the phonological loop used in the real world?
- Learning to read
- Language comprehension
- Long-term phonological learning
- Acquiring vocabulary
- Ex. Phone number
What is the visuospatial sketchpad? What kind of information does it hold and process?
- Visual and Spatial information
How do mental rotation experiments support the existence of the visuospatial sketchpad?
- Mental rotation
- visual rotation through space
How could we interfere with the visuospatial sketchpad? Brooks (1968)
- Can we interfere with the visuospatial sketchpad but not the phonological loop?
- evidence they are independent
- 2 tasks: one visuospatial, one verbal
- 2 types of responses: one spatial, one verbal
What is the central executive, and what is its role in working memory?
- No storage
- Coordinates information
- Attention controller
What is the episodic buffer? Why was it added to Baddeley's working memory model? (what problem did it help solve?)
- serves as a backup store that communicates with both LTM and the components of working memory
- holds info longer and has greater capacity than the phonological loop or visuoskeptchpad
- Added to the model in 2000
How does Randy Engle conceptualize working memory as an individual difference?
- DIGIT SPAN IS NOT SUFFICIENT > reading span
How is working memory capacity measured? How do these measures differ from short-term memory capacity measures?
- Engle's conception of working memory capacity:
- Control and sustain attention in the face of distraction
§ activate items in memory maintain attention
§ ignore distractions
Be able to describe the Stroop Task that had conditions with different levels of word-color congruency. How did high and low working memory capacity participants do in this task?
- Stroop Task example: Name the INK color
- When it is hard to maintain goals, high span people perform better
- People with LOW working memory span have a hard time ignoring irrelevant information
o What is working memory capacity related to in the "real world"?
- Reading
- Language comprehension
- Ability to follow directions
- Vocabulary learning
- Note-taking
- Writing
- Reasoning
- Bridge, chess, etc.
- Computer programming
What area of the brain is most associated working memory?
Pre frontal cortex
What is the Delayed-Response Task? What do its results teach us about working memory and the brain?
- Monkeys who are trained can do this task well.
- However, if their prefrontal cortex (PFC) is removed, their performance drops to chance.
Be able to describe the working memory study that examined single-cell firing in monkeys. What were the results and what do they tell us about working memory?
- Correct Trials: Cells in the PFC continued to fire after the cue disappeared until the monkey was signaled to move its eyes to the cued location.
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