HPS203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Loading Dock, Memory Span
Topic 3: Working Memory
1. Acquisition of Memories and the Working Memory System
Modal Model
- Idea that information processing involves different kinds of memory
- Atkinson & Shiffrin
- Give evidence for a ST & LT memory
- Working Memory (WM): a dynamic form of short-term memory
- Virtually all mental activities require working memory
- Some tasks may require more resources than others
- Indiv differences in WM capacity predict some cognitive abilities
- Digit span task: series of numbers, repeated back, series increases each time, 7 plus or
minus 2 chunks
- Operation span task: people hear sentences, report back last word from each sentence
- Chunking: working memory can hold 7 +/- 2 chunks of info, it increases the ability to
remember more as each chunk is 1 item
Working Memory (WM)
- A system that involves components, executive control processes, articulatory rehearsal
loop, visuo-spatial buffer
- Loading dock, getting information in and to long-term memory
- Reading span: captures active nature of working memory, participants reads sentences and
remembers the last word in each sentence, the number of words remembered is the
reading span
- Operation span: another measure of working memory
- Executive control: control sequences of thought and action, select and launch responses,
plan and set goals, break habit or routine
- WM is an update to the modal model and is a dynamic form of STM
Operation span:
- Procedure explicitly designed to measure working memory when it is working, measured in
several ways
- Someone with a higher operation span has a larger working memory
3 components of WM system and function:
- Central executive: control system, needed for the work, organises memories keep ideas
needed soon
- Visuo-spatial buffer: used for storing visual materials
- Articulatory rehearsal loop: storing verbal materials
Rehearsal types:
- Maintenance rehearsal: simply focus on items to be remembered, little thought on
meaning
- Elaborative/relational rehearsal: thinking about what the items to be remembered mean
and how they’re related to each other
- Elaborative rehearsal better for LTM as creates links with other memories
Level of Processing experiment
- The intention to memories influence how well material is learnt
- Intentional learning: task to remember as many words as possible on a list
