Short-Term Memory; Learning & Retention

Question 1

What are the theories of STM?

Answer 1

Parallel search, serial self-terminating search and serial exhaustive search

Question 2

Which theories of STM assume no difference btw RTs for YES and NO responses

Answer 2

Parallel search and serial exhaustive search

Question 3

What theories of STM predict increase in RTs with increse in set size

Answer 3

Serial self-terminating search and serial exhaustive search

Question 4

Which theory of STM is most supported?

Answer 4

Serial exhaustive search

Question 5

How is the mix of parallel and serial processes in STM called?

Answer 5

Cascading processes

Question 6

What is the multi-component model of WM?

Answer 6

Model that divides WM into a visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop and central executive

Question 7

What are the components of a visuospatial sketchpad? Which of them is active which passive?

Answer 7

Visual cache (passive) and inner scribe (dynamic)

Question 8

What are the components of a phonological loop?

Answer 8

Phonological store and articulatory rehearsal (subvocal speech)

Question 9

What are the components of central executive?

Answer 9

Habitual control and supervisory activating system

Question 10

What pathway does an auditory input follow in the phonological loop? What is a rehearsal process in phonological loop?

Answer 10

input -> phonological analysis -> STS -> phonological output buffer -> spoken output
Rehearsal: phonological output buffer -> STS/phonological analysis

Question 11

What pathway does an visual input follow in the phonological loop?

Answer 11

visual input -> visual analysis -> STS -> orthographic to phonological recording -> phonological output buffer -> spoken output

Question 12

What is a problem of serial order?

Answer 12

Question of how a serial order gets encoded in the phonological loop

Question 13

What is a chaining model and what are its problems?

Answer 13

Model where each item is a cue for each consecutive item (automatic). Sequence gets disrupted by similar/repeating items at cuing

Question 14

What are the 3 types of contextual models and their problems?

Answer 14

These models assume 2 separate mechanisms: one for registering an item, one for storing order
1. Ongoing contextual cue (similarity effect at retrieval)
2. First item = cue -> competitive cuing
3. First and last item = cues (protrusions from previous lists)
(transpose errors are most common)

Question 15

What is a phonological similarity effect?

Answer 15

Worse recall when a sequence contains similar-sounding letters; meaning is not important

Question 16

What is a word-length effect?

Answer 16

Worse recall for longer words
Loop hypothesis — overall list duration matters more

Question 17

What is an irrelevant sound effect?

Answer 17

Worse recall when irrelevant sounds are presented before/after -> mnemonic masking

Question 18

What is the function of the phonological loop?

Answer 18

New language acquisition:
Phonological store creates temporary representations for new phoneme secuences (language-independent)
Articulatory system facilitates learning through rehearsal using habitual articulatory rehearsal (language-dependent)

Question 19

How is the visuospatial distinction demonstrated?

Answer 19

By double dissociation in visual task (disrupted by visual interference) and in spatial task (disrupted by spatial interference)

Question 20

What is the relationship between visual imagery and verbal recall?

Answer 20

Spatial coding and visual imagery of interaction between 2 objects facilitates verbal recall

Question 21

What is the function of the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 21

Necessary for engineering, architecture, scientific discovery, geographical knowledge, spatial orientation and semantic knowledge about how to use an object

Question 22

What is the model of attentional control?

Answer 22

Divides the central executive into habitual control and supervisory activating system

Question 23

What is the main task of the episodic buffer?

Answer 23

Integrating episodes from different dimensions, thereby creating new representations rather than just activating old memories

Question 24

Where in the brain is the central executive localised?

Answer 24

Frontal lobes

Question 25

Where in the brain is the phonological loop localised?

Answer 25

Mostly left hemisphere (temporo-parietal regions) + motor cortex for articulatory rehearsal

Question 26

Where in the brain is the visuospatial sketchpad localised?

Answer 26

Mostly right hemosphere (occipital lobe) + motor cortex for inner scribe

Question 27

What are the similarities btw WM and Gf?

Answer 27

1. Common capacity constraint 2. Related attentional control processes 3. Rely on similar NNs

Question 28

What is an N-back task?

Answer 28

Visual string -> spatial Auditory string -> letters decide if the targets were the same N trials back

Question 29

What were the findings of Jaeggi et al. (2008) paper?

Answer 29

All training groups (8, 12, 17, 19 days) improved on N-back more that the control group (retest effect) Only 17 and 19 days of training produced a significant difference with control group 8 days significantly differed from 17 and 19 days 12 days significantly differed from 19 days Larger Gf gains in initially lower Gf, but also significant for initially higher Gf WM training seems to improve Gf

Question 30

What wast the main criticism of Harrison et al. (2013) about the paper of Jaeggi et al. (2008)?

Answer 30

Harrison et al. (2013) are saying that N-back task training did not improve Gf, it only improved some feature of the WMC. It does not transfer to Gf at construct level.

Question 31

What were the tasks in complex-span training condition in Harrison et al. (2013)?

Answer 31

Operation-span and symmetry-span tasks

Question 32

What were the tasks in simple-span training condition in Harrison et al. (2013)?

Answer 32

Letter-span and matrix-span

Question 33

What was the task in control condition in Harrison et al. (2013)?

Answer 33

Visual search -> no WM load

Question 34

What were the findings in Harrison et al. (2013) paper?

Answer 34

Complex-span training improved all near transfer tasks Simple-span also improved running-span tasks and word- and arrow-span tasks Control condition also improved word- and arrow-span tasks Near transfer can be explained by participants developing strategies, not increase in WMC Complex-and simple-span training improved secondary free-recall and keep-track task (moderate transfer) No condition improved primary free-recall or visual-array task No condition improved far transfer tasks (Gf)

Question 35

What is testing effect?

Answer 35

Testing during study phase facilitates retention

Question 36

In Roediger and Kapricke (2006) study on testing effect what were the results of the first experiment?

Answer 36

After 5 min RI, SS group performed better than ST group. After 2 days and 1 week RI, ST group performed better than SS group. SD after 1 week perofrmed better than SS after 2 days.

Question 37

In Roediger and Kapricke (2006) study on testing effect what were the results of the second experiment?

Answer 37

After 5 min RI, STTT performed worse than SSST which performed worse than SSSS. After 1 week, SSSS performed worse than SSST which performed worse than STTT. SSSS rated texts as more boring and were more confident to remember well after 1 week. Proportional forgetting (most to least): SSSS; SSST; STTT

Question 38

What theories is the testing effect found by Roediger and Kapricke (2006) consistent with?

Answer 38

Transfer appropriate processing Retrieval routes x stored events Desirable difficulties

Question 39

What is total time hypothesis?

Answer 39

It says that amount of time to study smth is fixed regardless of individual presentation duration

Question 40

What is spacing effect?

Answer 40

Spaced presentation improves recall compared to massed presentation

Question 41

What is the formula for proportional forgetting?

Answer 41

(initial recall - final recall) / initial recall

Question 42

What were the general results of de Jonge et al. (2012) study on study-time distribution?

Answer 42

They found an inverted U-shape for Proportion Correct Recall in both experiments (4x4s being the best) Poor initial recall (16x1s; 1x16s) -> high proportional forgetting Good initial recall (4x4s) -> low proportional forgetting

Question 43

What is effective study time hypothesis?

Answer 43

Some minimal amount of time is needed to form an association btw 2 words; if the pressentation time gets too long, participant will loose attention and bet bored Same as Goldilocks hypothesis (just right, optimal)

Question 44

What mechanisms explain the results of de Jonge et al. (2012) study on study-time distribution?

Answer 44

Spacing theories Encoding variability -> more presentations = more different contexts encoded => better recall Study phase retrieval account -> more repetition = more retrieval from LTM = more additional info stored with original memory trace => better recall BUT some additional assumptions are needed! Since a lot of presentations for very short times worsened the recall (16x1s)

Question 45

What is spacing effect?

Answer 45

AKA Distributed practice. Effects of gap between exposures on later retention

Question 46

What was the general design of Cepeda et al. (2008) study on spacing effect?

Answer 46

1. First study 2. Gap (0–105 days) 3. Second study 4. RI (7–350 days) 5. Final test (recall and recongnition)

Question 47

What were the 4 constraits the data of Cepeda et al. (2008) satisfied?

Answer 47

1. Forgetting curve -> as RI increases, recall declines (for any gap) 2. Increasing gap first increases and then decreases performance (for any RI) 3. As RI increases, optimal gap increases 4. As RI increases, gap/RI ratio declines

Question 48

What is retention surface?

Answer 48

Test performance as a function of gap and RI Large non-monotonic spacing effect