Short-term and working memory Flashcards
Clive Wearing
- ## Anterograde amnesia
Kosakoff’s Syndrome & Amnesia
- Jimmie R. became a patient of Dr. Oliver Sachs’ beginning in the year 1975; however, Jimmie believed it to be 1945…and always would
- Dr. Sachs showed Jimmie a mirror (he was 49 years old) and he reacted with horror and confusion
Mercifully, he was easily distracted and remembered nothing 5
minutes later - Amnesia is a symptom, not a disease in and of itself ‐ in Jimmie’s case, this was caused by Korsakoff’s Syndrome
Alcohol‐induced brain damage (mammillary bodies)
The Hippocampus Patient- H.M.
- Temporal lobe epilepsy
- Removal of hippocampus, amygdala, entorhinal & perirhinal cortices
Biological basis of memory
Neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience have greatly informed our understanding of memory systems
Early view: The Modal Model (wrong)
The Revised Model
Early view: The Modal Model
Test of sensory (iconic) memory: Sperling’s Partial Report Paradigm
Short-term/working memory
- STM Capacity: Digit‐span task
- The participant is asked to remember digits.
- The list is increased until memory fails. The maximum number is the digit span.
- Remember 7 +/‐ 2 items
STM Duration: Brown‐Peterson Paradigm
- Experimenter reads first a consonant trigram (e.g., DBX) and then a 3‐digit number out loud to participant.
- Participant first counts backward by 3’s starting from the 3‐digit number for a varying amount of time
- Then asked to recall 3 consonants in order
The Modal Model: Serial Position Curve
- Presented with a long series of words (e.g., 30)
- Perform free‐recall afterward
- Look at the position in the list (serial recall)
Serial position curve
Primacy effect
- Better memory for first few items
- Long‐term memory
- Memory rehearsal allows transfer from WM to LTM
Recency effect
- Better memory for the last few
items
- Last few items are not displaced
by future items
- Based on working memory
Recency Effect and Working Memory
Thirty seconds is not enough to wipe out recency.
Slow presentation aids pre‐recency items
Summary: Short‐Term Memory Store
Short-Term Memory Syndrome
Brown-Petersen Paradigm in Patient PV
Serial Position curve- amnesics s. controls
Serial position curve- Patient LS
Short-term memory syndrome vs. control
Intact Long-Term Memory Despite Impaired Short-Term Memory!
Does More STS Rehearsal Time Improve LTM Storage?
What is the role of short‐term memory?
Does it function as working memory?
- Temporary storage area which holds and manipulates material being processed
- Used in tasks such as mental arithmetic, reasoning, problem solving
If “yes”, then should have difficulty in these types of tasks if STS is filled.
- Task: Remember a string of digits while doing a verbal reasoning task
Original Model of Working Memory
