Unit 2: Working Memory, Long Term Memory Flashcards
What is the definition of STM in the modal model?
single component short-term store
functions:
temporary storage - lists, task relevant info
transfer to LTM via rehearsal
a single system for holding and manipulating information for a wide variety of tasks such as learning, comprehension, and reasoning
What is a dual task?
- encode list of digits
- perform a cognitive task (e.g., reasoning, comprehension)
- recall list of digits
if both load and task make use of same store, then increasing load (to span) should disrupt performance on primary task
What are the concurrent tasks grammatical reason with memory load study by Baddeley 1986?
memory span task - provides a memory load
grammatical reasoning task
What is the procedure in the grammatical reason with memory load study by Baddeley 1986?
auditory presentation of digit load - 1 digit per second
concurrent overt rehearsal of load
visual presentation of letter pair & sentence
respond T/F to sentence
serial recall of digits
What is the design of the grammatical reason with memory load study by Baddeley 1986?
memory load: 0 to 8 digits
sentence type: true value X voice X affirmation
What are the implications of single-store view?
assumption:
span task - absorbs (almost) all STM capacity
reasoning task - requires access to STM
prediction:
if span task absorbs all of STM –> dual task requirements should produce a dramatic impairment in performance
span-length memory load –> catastrophic interference
What was the results of dual task reasoning?
no effect on reasoning when load is light (0-2)
reason showed by load
error rate low regardless of load
load also has negative, but non-catastrophic, impact on free recall & text comprehension
What is the implication of dual task performance?
system responsible for digit span cannot be the same as system responsible for learning/reasoning
motivated the development of the multi-component WM model
What is Baddeley and Hitch’s (1983) model of working memory?
central executive: control center of working memory
two subordinate systems:
phonological loop: processes verbal/acoustic information
visuo-spatial sketch pad: processes visual and spatial information
What is the working memory interpretation of dual task performance?
load maintenance requires: access to phonological store, minor attentional resources to schedule rehearsal
grammatical reasoning requires: attentional resources for sentence understanding/reasoning, limited access to phonological store
as load increases, attentional demands increase; thus, less capacity available for sentence processing
What are the two components of the phonological loop?
phonological short-term store: phonological information that decays with time, “inner ear”
subvocal rehearsal process: articulatory-like rehearsal that needs active maintenance, “inner voice”
What is the speech-based system in the phonological loop?
phonological similarity decrease
irrelevant speech decrease
articulatory suppression decrease
What is the 2 second capacity in the phonological loop?
word length effect
cross-linguistic changes
developmental changes
What is the phonological similarity effect?
similar sounding list < dissimilar sounding lists
(almost) no evidence for semantic similarity effect
What is the implication of the phonological similarity effect?
representation is speech-based not meaning based
What is the irrelevant speech effect?
recall impaired when items are accompanied by other verbal material
effect found with: same-language words, same-language non-words, foreign words
What is the interpretation of the irrelevant speech effect?
unattended (linguistic) material was gaining access to the phonological store
What is auditory suppression?
concurrent (overt or covert) articulation, decreases word span (“the, the, the…”; “one, two, three, one, two…)
concurrent articulation decreases: the phonological similarity effect, word length effect
What is the interpretation of auditory suppression?
articulation of irrelevant items dominates ACP - words cannot be “rehearsed” or recorded into phonological code
What is the word length effect?
word span decrease as number of syllables/word increases
recall depends of reading rate: number of words recalled ~2 (reading rate)
reading rate = number of words read per second
What is the study of the capacity of the phonological store by Baddeley et al. (1975)?
task: free recall
materials: 5-word lists
manipulation: syllable length
What are the results of the study of the capacity of the phonological store by Baddeley et al. (1975)?
recall decreased, as syllable length increased; recall predicted by reading rate
linear relation between reading time and recall
interpretation: capacity of phono loop is about 2 seconds of speech materials
reason: fast fading phono trace, rehearsal refreshes trace, if not rehearsed within 2 seconds, most info lost
What are the implications of the study of the capacity of the phonological store by Baddeley et al. (1975)?
across languages, digit span should be related to mean syllable length of digits
digit span should increase with age, because speech rate does
What are the cross-linguistic changes in digit span?
as predicted:
span larger for languages with short digits than long
span ~ 2 X reading rate
