Working Memory
Created by Axel Burch
working memory
the ability to keep small amounts of information readily available for our current activities
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
working memory | the ability to keep small amounts of information readily available for our current activities |
working memory model | CE -> VSS (visual cache and inner scribe) and PL (phonological store and articulatory rehearsal process) ->EB -> LTM |
aim of WMM | to give an economical and coherent account of a range of data |
dual task evidence for WMM | >primary task (focus) and secondary task
>if separate mental mechanisms are used (multiple areas of WM) then no interference should occur
>if the same mental mechanisms are used (1 area of WMM) then interference should occur |
evaluation of WMM stores | >Morey- separate STM and verbal STM stores are unnecessary as higher costs found in tasks overseen by separate memory stores
>Baddeley- argument not valid as additional executive costs occur during dual tasking |
PL evidence | >phonological similarity effect
>articulatory suppression
>word length effect |
phonological similarity effect (Conrad, 1964) | tendency for immediate serial recall of verbal material to be reduced when items are similar in sound |
articulatory suppression | preventing articulatory rehearsal affects retention as both similar and dissimilar words will be retained at a lower but equivalent level |
articulatory suppression evidence (Baddeley) | >read two word lists aloud and memorise them
>words are shorter in second list so it should be easier to remember
>preventing articulatory rehearsal removes word length effect |
word length effect | a tendency for verbal memory span to decrease when longer words are used |
visual cache of VSS | passive storage of information about form and colour |
inner scribe of VSS | active system dealing with spatial locations of objects and movement, and refreshes visual cache contents |
corsi block primary task | measures spatial memory by repeating a sequence of locations on the blocks until failure |
visual patterns primary task | measure visual span with increasingly complex matrix patterns which participants reproduce until failure |
spatial tapping secondary task | disrupts spatial memory by occupying inner scribe through tapping a set of targets |
irrelevant pictures secondary task | disrupts visual memory by occupying visual cache through showing irrelevant abstract images |
behavioural double dissociation | >Della Sala et al.
>dual task interference paradigm
>components within the VSS can be disrupted by dual tasking so there may be further subdivisions or a better explanation |
episodic buffer | later added in 2000, and has a capacity of 3-5 chunks and binds (chunks) information from the WMM so it can be integrated with LTM |
change detection paradigm | >Luck and Vogal- sample array and test array presented, with 50% of trial showing identical displays, then participants indicate whether arrays are identical or not
>articulatory suppression used to ensure visual processing |
capacity | >defined by objects not features |
evidence of capacity | >Luck and Vogal- presented objects defined by mixture of colour, orientation, size and presence/absence of a gap so that 24 features were distributed across 6 objects
>16 features across 4 objects retained as easily as 4 features across 4 objects |
evaluation of capacity | >Oberauer and Eichenberger
>visual memory limited on dimensions: no. objects, no. feature per object, and precision of memory for each feature |
attentional resources of binding | >dual tasking tests
>surface-feature binding (colour and shape) immune to concurrent load (counting backwards) in some literature but requires attention in other, so may occur automatically in early perceptual processes
>location binding disrupted by concurrent load |