1. Describe the components of the modal model.
2. What is the sensory store? How is it measured?
3. What is the capacity, duration, and coding of the short-term store (STS)?
4. What is the Brown-Peterson task? Is forgetting due to decay or interference?
5. How are items retrieved from STS? Is search self-terminating or exhaustive?
6. What are the structural and functional components of working memory?
Memory includes:
• structures (called “______”) that hold knowledge
• processes that operate on knowledge
• may also refer to the knowledge itself
(Richard Atkinson & Richard Shiffrin, 1968, 1971)
__________ features: stable memory stores
• sensory store
• short-term store (STS) represented acoustically
• long-term store (LTS) is semantic
- based on James’ (1890) primary and secondary memory
- this distinction is similar to computers (RAM vs. hard drive)
_______ processes: routines or strategies a person selects and uses depending on the situation; they include:
• _________: repetition of information; helps transfer information from STS to LTS
e.g., repeating a phone number over and over until you memorize it
• ______: associating to-be-remembered information with already known information
e.g., imaging: using visual images to remember verbal information
• _________ strategies: help focus on to-be-remembered information
e.g., remembering provincial capitals by starting with the west coast and working eastward
Pros & Cons:
division of memory is clear and intuitive
influential in guiding memory research
oversimplified structures and processes of memory
overstated the role of rehearsal in remembering
George Sperling (1960): What is the duration of the sensory store?
Part I: _____ report method
- flashed matrix of letters on screen for 50 ms
- recall rate was 4.5 out of a 12-letter matrix (38%)
Part II: _______ report method
- matrix flashed on screen
- delay
- cue tone presented, indicating which row should be recalled
- brief delay: tested recall for desired row was 3.3 out of 4 (82%)
- accuracy declined as delay period increased
- implied complete image was temporarily stored
- “______ _____” duration ~200-400 ms
- same result if cued to ______, when coloured letters were scattered in a matrix
Darwin, Turvey, & Crowder (1972):
- three-_____-person task:
left ear: |
both ears: |
right ear: |
B |
8 |
F |
2 |
6 |
R |
L |
U |
10 |
- partial report cue: visual bar on left, middle, or right
- longer delay: poorer recall
- “______ _____” duration ~2-4 s
Sensory stores also exist for touch, smell, and taste
Function: allows extraction of limited amounts of information to ___
George Miller (1956):
- _____-____ task: try to recall a given a list of numbers
- capacity: “The Magical Number _____, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information”
However, more recent work (Baddeley, 1994; Cowan, 2001) indicates that STS capacity is four, plus or minus one.
STS unit is a _____: well-learned unit of components, representing consistent or meaningful pattern
• chunking combines units into a larger chunk, and reduces amount to be remembered
• application: ________
e.g., “Roy G. Biv” tells you the colours of the rainbow
Chase & Simon (1973): How are expertise and STS related?
- participants: chess masters, intermediates, novices
- shown chess boards for 5 s:
• ______ chess boards: masters’ recall superior
• ______ pieces: equal performance
- experts have better domain-________ memories of patterns that form chunks
Chase & Ericsson (1981):
- trained long-distance ______ S.F. to expand digit span using chunking
e.g., sequence 3 4 9 2 would be encoded as 3 min 49.2 s (near world-record time for the mile)
- expanded digit span from 7 to 79 digits with 230 hours of practice
Peterson & Peterson (1959; also Brown, 1958): How long is short-term storage?
- participants told to remember 3 consonants & 3-digit number
- during retention interval, had to count backwards by 3s
e.g. given “S B J, 394”, count 391, 388, 385,...
- after a certain amount of time, recall the 3 letters
- their conclusion: STS ______ in less than 20 seconds without active rehearsal
Problem:
Keppel & Underwood (1962):
- performance declined over trials
- previously used letters __________ with current memory!
Waugh & Norman (1965)
- list of 16 digits (last = “probe digit”), then a tone
- what digit came after the probe the first time it occurred in the list?
e.g., 7 9 5 1 2 9 3 8 0 4 6 3 7 6 0 2 (tone), respond: “9”
- presentation rate of 1/s or 4/s
- decay prediction: less recall with slower rate
- interference prediction: no difference due to rate
- results: presentation rate had little effect on recall
- conclusion: interference, not decay, is the primary cause of forgetting
• ___________ interference: new information replaces older information
e.g., Windows 3.1 paste command was...?
• _________ interference: already-learned information makes it harder to remember new information
e.g., Power 92.5 FM now called...?
Barnes & Underwood (1959):
- participants learned a list of paired-associate words until perfect recall (A-B list)
e.g., chair-dog
- then learned a second list with the first terms paired with new words (A-C list)
e.g., chair-tree
(studied this second list 1, 5, 10, or 20 times)
- memory was tested for both associated terms
e.g., given chair, respond with dog and tree
- recall of A-B list is interfered with by the memory for A-C list (___________ interference)
Wickens, Born & Allen (1963):
- participants heard several lists of words from same category
(dogs)
- recall declined after a number of trials
- on the final trial, words were from a different category
(flowers)
- recall ________
- _______ from proactive interference
Acoustic:
• ____________ similarity effect (Conrad, 1964):
- letters were presented ________
- participants then wrote them down
- more interference among similar-sounding letters
(e.g., B C P T V vs. F M N S X)
- 75% of errors from same acoustical class
- few visual errors
(e.g., E vs. F, O vs. Q, R vs. P)
• ____ ______ effect memory for shorter words is better than for longer words
e.g., digit spans for different languages (Naveh-Benjamin & Ayres, 1986):
- this effect is a function of how long it takes to read the words out loud
• articulatory ___________: repeating word (e.g., “the”) during retention interferes with memory
Visual:
Posner & Keele (1967):
- showed letters, same or different in name and/or form:
e.g., AA, Aa, AB, or Ab
- measured RT to decide same name:
e.g., AA (same), Aa (same), AB (different)
- took longer to decide same name/different form (Aa) than same name/same form (AA)
- implies ______ code in STS
Brooks (1968): ____________ effects
Tasks:
- sentence: read a sentence, then from memory, make judgments about each word (is it a noun?)
- diagram: see block letter, then from memory, go around it clockwise and make judgments about each corner (is it at the _______ top or bottom of the letter?)
Response modes:
- verbal: say “yes” or “no”
- pointing at spatial arrangement of Ys and Ns
e.g., sentence task with verbal response mode:
“A bird in the hand is not in the bush.” Is each word a ____?
(correct sequence: N, Y, N, N, Y, N, N, N, N, Y)
e.g., diagram task with pointing response mode:
*L |
Y |
N |
|||
Y |
N |
||||
Y |
N |
||||
Y |
N |
||||
Y |
N |
||||
Y |
N |
(correct sequence: Y, Y, Y, N, N, Y)
Results (time in seconds):
Response mode: |
||
Task: |
verbal |
pointing |
sentence |
13.8 |
9.8 |
diagram |
11.3 |
28.2 |
- spatial response mode (pointing) __________ with imagery (diagram task)
Semantic: Shulman (1970):
- participants viewed 10-word lists
- given recognition test using visually represented “probe words”:
• ________ (e.g. “bawl” for “ball”)
• ________ (e.g. “talk” for “speak”)
• identical to the original word
- homonym and synonym probes produced similar error rates, suggesting an equal amount of acoustic and ________ coding in STS
Saul Sternberg (1969): The _________ Task
- how do people search their STS?
• ________: probe individually compared to memory set
• ________: each probe simultaneously compared to set
- procedure:
1. participants store set of items in STS
2. are given probe item; timer starts
3. participants scan STS for item
4. make response; timer stops
- probe item is in the memory set 50% of the time
Trial |
Memory set items |
Probe items |
Correct response |
1 |
R |
R |
Yes |
2 |
LG |
L |
Yes |
3 |
SN |
N |
Yes |
4 |
BKVJ |
M |
No |
5 |
LSCY |
C |
Yes |
- results: larger set 
longer RT
- implies serial scan interpretation
- but do you stop when you find a match?
• ____-___________ search: stops when match found
• __________ search: stops at end of list
- results: positive (item in list) and negative (item not in list) responses take equally long
- also, in positive responses, position of item in the list has no effect on RT
- conclusion: STS search must be __________
(alternate explanation: search is parallel, but adding items slows it down)
Alan Baddeley (1974, 1976, 2000, 2018):
In contrast to the storage-based view of STS, working memory includes the processing of information
Components:
• ____________ loop:
- phonological store: passively stores speech sounds
- articulatory rehearsal process: actively processes items to prevent decay
• ____________ sketchpad:
- visual cache: stores form and colour information
- inner scribe: handles spatial and movement information; rehearses visual information; also transfers information in visual cache to central executive
• _______ _________:
- controls attention
- coordinates other components
- transfers information to/from long-term memory
- time sharing of multiple tasks
e.g., generating random numbers is worse while alternating reciting alphabet and counting
• ________ buffer:
- interfaces with episodic long-term memory storage (holds personal life experiences)
- integrates information into a single complex structure or experience
General:
- fluid systems include attention and temporary storage, whereas crystallized systems accumulate long-term _________
- all components have limited ________
- if two tasks use the same component, they cannot be performed successfully ________
Pros & Cons:
conceptualizes active processing and transient storage of information
can be applied to _______ tasks
role of central executive is vague
it is unclear how components interact
Smith & Jonides (1997): How is working memory related to the brain?
- participants given verbal memory or spatial memory task while in a PET scanner
• verbal task: presented 4 target letters; delay; probe letter presented: Did probe match any target letter?
• spatial task: presented 3 dots at different locations; delay; circle presented: Was a dot located within the circle?
- brain activation from a related control task not requiring working memory was __________
- results:
• verbal task: activated posterior parietal, Broca’s, premotor, and supplementary motor areas in left hemisphere
• spatial task: activated posterior parietal and premotor areas in right hemisphere
- conclusions:
• ______-____________ evidence for different systems for verbal (left hemisphere) vs. spatial information (right hemisphere)
• as memory load increased, corresponding brain regions showed increase in activity
• may be ________ components for passive storage (generally located toward the back of the brain) vs. active processing (more in the frontal lobes)
Other research has implicated the central executive as a function of the __________ cortex, whereas the episodic buffer seems more broadly distributed.