Memory

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Memory

• Short term memory
• (a.k.a. Working Memory)

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Course Overview
Acquisition (perception)
Use
ch. 3 Vision. How are objects recognized?
Ch. 6-11 Memory - to know is to remember
Ch. 12-14 Reasoning - inductive -
deductive Problem Solving
-It looks easy but its not
- Different types of knowledge (visual K,
language, categories)
ch.4 Attention.
-Filters perceptual input
ch. 5 Working Memory - Buffer for mental
representations
Ch 4Executive Functions
- Deficits Errors
Emotion
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Free Recall Task Subjects - hear items
(usually 10-40 words), then - they say or write
all the items they can remember, in any order.
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1. Monster 2. Camera 3. Tricycle 4. Melon 5.
Window 6. Guest 7. Quiet 8. Cherish 9.
Waiting 10. Rabbitt 11. Computer 12. Child 13.
Chicken 14. Ghost 15. Slave
Serial Position Function
Probability of reporting the item
?
1 2
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Position in Original List
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Primacy
Recency
Privileged rehearsal better LTM encoding
STM contribution
(Glanzer Kunitz, 1966)
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List Length
20 30 40
Prob. Of Rept.
1 10 20
30 40
Position in Original List
Serial position effects are consistent over
different list sizes...
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Modal Model (Atkinson Shiffrin, 60s)
STM
LTM
early sensory processing

• Unlimited capacity
• Hard to get stuff into it.
• Organized semantically

• Consciously available
• Flexible material
• Fixed of slots
• (72 chunks)
• Decays if not rehearsed

• Very rapid decay (1-2 secs)
• Modality specific (iconic, echoic)
• Vulnerable

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Memory Processes
Sensory Memory
Short-term Working Memory
Long-term Memory

• Attention

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Memory Processes
Sensory Memory
Short-term Working Memory
Long-term Memory

• Storage

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Memory Processes
Sensory Memory
Short-term Working Memory
Long-term Memory

• Retrieval

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Memory Processes
Sensory Memory
Short-term Working Memory
Long-term Memory

• Information loss/ Forgetting

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Memory Processes
Sensory Memory
Short-term Working Memory
Long-term Memory

• Rehearsal, Elaboration, etc.

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Modal Model Primacy and Recency Effects
STM
LTM
early sensory processing

• Unlimited capacity
• Hard to get stuff into it.
• Organized semantically

• Consciously available
• Flexible material
• Fixed of slots
• (72 chunks)
• Decays if not rehearsed

• Very rapid decay (1-2 secs)
• Modality specific (iconic, echoic)
• Vulnerable

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STM
LTM
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Recency
Primacy
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STM
(Murray Glanzer)
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(Murray Glanzer)
LTM
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Independence of LTM and STM Neurological
evidence Patient H.M. - surgery in 1953 to
relieve epilepsy. - Normal working memory normal
digit span - Impaired Long-term memory
(anterograde amnesia) unable to learn most new
information. he can recall facts from before
surgery (events from school days, preserved
language skills, recognized people). Patient
K.F. - closed head injury. - Impaired working
memory Digit span of 1 item - Normal Long-term
memory (recall a short story, learn word lists
when lists presented repeatedly, and do fine on
long-term recognition).
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(Alan Baddeley)
Normals
Prob. Of Rept.
STM Patients
Position
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Anterograde Amnesia might be explained as a
blockage of the flow of information from STM to
LTM
LTM
STM
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BUTshort term memory deficits in the absence of
LTM deficits spell trouble for this gateway model
of LTM acquisition...
LTM
STM
Entry into STM is not necessary for entry into LTM
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Impairment
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• Double dissociations guard against resource
  artifacts (differences in task performance that
  stem from differences in task difficulty)
• For example,
• I can juggle 3 balls, but
• I cannot juggle 5 balls,
• Should we conclude that juggling 3 balls is a
  process independent from juggling 5? Or that
  juggling 5 balls is a more difficult task?
• Well argue for independence only if we find
  someone who is unable to juggle 3 balls but can
  juggle 5 (double dissociation). Quite unlikely
  -)

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Double dissociations guard against resource
artifacts (differences in task performance that
stem from differences in task difficulty) For
example, Patient H. M. has - impaired LTM
but, - normal STM Should we conclude that LTM
is a process independent from STM? Or that LTM is
a more difficult task? Well argue for
independence only if we find someone who is
unable to hold things in STM but can retain them
in LTM (patient K.H.).
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Working Memory

• A cognitive system that allows the maintenance of
  information on line or available for immediate
  processing.

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Model of Memory
F I L T E R
Sensory Memory
Short-term Working Memory
Long-term Memory
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Model of Memory
Visual
F I L T E R
Central Exec.
Sensory Memory
Long-term Memory
Auditory
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Working Memory (Alan Baddeley)
Central Executive
Visuospatial Buffer
Phonological Buffer
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Short-Term Memory for Visual and Verbal
Materials One or two stores? Approach 1 Store
maximum capacity of one type -- then see if
person can remember any of the other type.
Example

3 9 8 2 1 7 4
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Usual Finding ZERO interference between verbal
and visual STM loads (Sanders Scarborough)
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Working Memory (Alan Baddeley)
Central Executive
Visuospatial Buffer
Phonological Buffer
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The phonological buffer
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Phonological Buffer Evidence

• Task Memory Span
• Listen a list of items, and repeat them
• Effect of
• Phonological Similarity (phono store)
• Articulatory suppression (subvocal rehearsal)
• Word length (subvocal rehearsal)
• Neurological overlap with language areas

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Phonological Similarity
Confusions occur if words sound alike mad,
cat, man, map, cat But not for similar
meaning huge, long, tall, big, wide or for
similar-looking bough, cough, dough, through
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Articulatory Suppression
repeatedly say the while hearing a list B C
P T V B K X Y R the the the the the the
the the
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Word length effect

• People can generally remember about as many words
  as they can say in 2 seconds.
• memory span for sum, wit, harm
• better than for opportunity, individual,
  university
• Same number of chunksbut one of the sets takes
  longer to articulate.
• This result provides support for the notion of
  articulatory rehearsal of phonological
  information.

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Neural overlap between verbal WM and language
Speech production areas and language receptive
areas are active when people try to remember
phonological information
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Phonological Buffer

• The contents of storage is limited by
• the time it takes to rehearse the items
• the number of chunks encoded

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Chunking and the capacity of the phonological
buffer
The standard estimate of the capacity of the
phonological buffer is 7 plus or minus 2
chunks of information. A chunk is a
meaningful unit of information. In a typical
digit span task, subjects can hear and report
back about 5-9 randomly selected digits.
F B I C I A F D R J F K
F B I C I A F D R J F
K chunking allows storage of greater amounts of
informationbecause information is packaged
more efficiently
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Working Memory (Alan Baddeley)
Central Executive
Visuospatial Buffer
Phonological Buffer
rehearsal
?
storage
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Brain Activations during Spatial and Object
Working Memory
It appears that different brain regions are
active during the storage of spatial and object
information in working memory.
Spatial
Object
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Double Dissociation based on Brain Localization
Brain region A
Task A
System A
Brain region B
Brain region A
Task B
System B
Brain region B
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Working Memory
Central Executive
Visuospatial Buffer
Phonological Buffer
spatial
rehearsal
storage
object
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The Central Executive

• Supervise attention
• Planning/Coordination
• Monitoring

the least well understood aspect of working
memory.
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Frontal lobe syndrome

• Distractibility, difficulty concentrating
• Problems with organization, planning
• Perseveration fail to stop inappropriate
  behavior