PSY246 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Prefrontal Cortex, Cogmed, Dyslexia
2 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Week 3 – Working Memory PSY246
Outline
• Memory: architectures and processes
• Criticisms of the original multistore model
o Influence of long-term knowledge on STM tasks; maintenance
rehearsal; patient KF
• Baddeley’s working memory model
o Baddeley & Hitch’s (!974) model → phonological loop, visuo-spatial
sketchpad, central executive (+ episodic bugger)
• Phonological loop
o Findings related to this;
▪ Phonological similarity effect
▪ Word length effect
▪ Effects of articulatory suppression
o Phonological store and articulatory control processes
o Digit span across languages
o What is the PL for?
• Other components of Baddeley’s working memory model
o Visuo-spatial sketchpad
o Episodic buffer
o Central executive
▪ Norman and Shallice’s SAS (supervisory attentional system)
▪ Executive functions
• Working memory vs. short term memory
• Food for thought: current controversies
Memory – Architecture and processes:
• Architecture (structure) → the way in which the memory system is organised
• Processes → the activities occurring within the memory system
The original multistore model of memory
• Sensory stores = holds info in its original sensory modalities
• STM store = very limited capacity, storage is fragile
• LTM store = unlimited capacity, holds info over long period of time
Criticisms of this model –
• 1. Sensory store, STM and LTM store are not unitary
o Each store does not operate in a single, uniform fashion but has
SUBCOMPONENTS → STM replaced by ‘working memory’, LTM
as ‘episodic memory’
• 2. Over-emphasis of structural aspects of memory
o Emphasis on processes
• 3. STM is not the gateway to LTM
o The systems are interconnected → STM tasks make use of knowledge
in LTM e.g. chunking – remembering a series of letters (CIATVHSC)
– using knowledge from LTM as acronyms
o Rehearsal may not be as crucial as learning → maintenance/rote
rehearsal does not result in durable memory (ineffective)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Impairment of STM does not necessarily lead to impairment of LTM –
patient KF; impairments in STM but in tact LTM
Patient KF:
• Background
o Man aged 28
o Left parieto-occipital fracture in a motorcycle accident 11 years before
o Verbal IQ of 79, performance IQ of 113
• The main deficit = inability to repeat verbal material
o Digit/letter/word span of 1
o Recognition by pointing was also poor (i.e. not motor speech function
deficit, it was a memory span)
o Paired-associate learning (of associated words) with 24 hour delay was
normal
• Profound limited STM (thus showing that STM is not gateway to LTM)
STM & LTM: Evidence for Independence (a Double-Dissocation)
• Amnesics
o Damage to the medial temporal lobe
o Impaired LTM
o Intact STM
• Patient KF and others
o Damage to parietal and temporal lobes
o Normal LTM
o Poor STM for letters, words and digits
Baddeley and Hitch (1974):
• Replaced the concept of ‘short-term store’ with ‘working memory’
• The major components of Baddeley’s working memory system
o Central executive (acts as the supervisor – the three other components
branch out)
o Phonological loop (inner voice) → holds info in a speech-based form
o Visuo-spatial sketchpad (inner eye) → specialized for spatial and/or
visual coding
o Episodic buffer (added in a later model) → holds/integrates diverse
info
• The central executive resembles attention – a control system which
coordinates the peripheral storage systems
• Episodic buffer was proposed later (2001) to account for data that could not be
explained by original model
• All components of the system are thought to be limited in capacity and
relatively independent
o If two tasks use the same component, they cannot be performed
successfully together
o If two tasks use different components, they should be able to be
performed similarly together or separately
Phonological Loop (Most known component):
• Phonological similarity effect
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
