Problem 1
Baddeley, Eysenck, Anderson – Memory
Riegler and Riegler – Cognitive psychology
Sternberg – Cognitive psychology
Working memory: not only temporarily stores information but also manipulates it to allow
complex activities, temporary workspace
Short-term memory: simple retention of small amounts of information, part of working memory
- Limits in duration:
o Limited, only temporary, must be rehearsed
o With a task to prevent rehearsal, people forget within 20 seconds and only 10% can
recall
- Limits in capacity:
o Magical number 7+- 2
o Limitation in the number of items we can hold in short-term memory
o Assessed through memory span: remembering what the items are & remembering
the order
- Chunking:
o combining items on the basis of long-term memory
o functionally increases the limits by recoding
o still has limitations
o depends on rate of presentation (e.g. too fast) & knowledge base (if you already
know about it you’ll recode better)
- Coding:
o Auditory coding: what we hear is being rehearsed via an inner voice
1. THE MODAL MODEL/ INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL:
o 3 stages – sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory
- Free recall: people are presented with a sequence of items which they can recall in any
order they wish
- Serial position effect: consists of 2 different effects primacy and recency
o Excellent recall of the last items – recency effect
o Relatively well recall of first items – primacy effect
, o Earlier items: more rehearsal – storage in long-term memory
o Last items: active in short-term memory – high levels of recall
o Delaying recall: weakens recency effect – no effect on primacy
The delay is sufficient enough to eliminate the short-term memory’s
contribution but not the long-term memory
o Spacing between items: provides more time for rehearsal – enhances primacy
effect – doesn’t change recency effect
2. THE WORKING MEMORY MODEL:
- Immediate (short-term) memory is actually a number of interacting subsystems that
combine to host higher mental processes
- 2 subsystems incorporate verbal (phonological loop) and visual-spatial (visuospatial
sketchpad) coding
o Integration among these 2 by episodic buffer
o Supervision of operations of subsystems by central executive
The phonological loop: 2 subcomponents
o Phonological store: holds information temporarily, information will be lost if not
rehearsed
o Subvocal rehearsal mechanism: responsible for rehearsal
o coding with phonological loop is obligatory so even visually presented information
must be converted to verbal to be processed
Phonological interference:
- Irrelevant speech effect:
o Any spoken stimulus during processing of information has the potential to disrupt
memory, even if it’s irrelevant or told to be ignored
o Also disrupts visual information because it is eventually converted into verbal
o White noise disrupts perception but doesn’t impair recall
o Memory performance doesn’t depend on the intensity of the sound
o The disruption is not affected by the similarity between the sound and items
o Vocal music is more disruptive than instrumental
- Word length:
o Memory span is not necessarily limited by the number of items processed but also
how long it takes encode them
o Long words take longer to pronounce than shorter ones so the subvocal mechanism
can’t rehearse the information quickly enough to maintain it in the store
o Forgetting both during subvocal rehearsal and during recall
- Phonological similarity:
o Lists of similar-sounding items are more difficult to keep track of in STM
o It even occurs when information is presented visually
o Similarity of meaning has little effect
o This effect disappears if the lists are increased in length and people are allowed
several learning trials
Baddeley, Eysenck, Anderson – Memory
Riegler and Riegler – Cognitive psychology
Sternberg – Cognitive psychology
Working memory: not only temporarily stores information but also manipulates it to allow
complex activities, temporary workspace
Short-term memory: simple retention of small amounts of information, part of working memory
- Limits in duration:
o Limited, only temporary, must be rehearsed
o With a task to prevent rehearsal, people forget within 20 seconds and only 10% can
recall
- Limits in capacity:
o Magical number 7+- 2
o Limitation in the number of items we can hold in short-term memory
o Assessed through memory span: remembering what the items are & remembering
the order
- Chunking:
o combining items on the basis of long-term memory
o functionally increases the limits by recoding
o still has limitations
o depends on rate of presentation (e.g. too fast) & knowledge base (if you already
know about it you’ll recode better)
- Coding:
o Auditory coding: what we hear is being rehearsed via an inner voice
1. THE MODAL MODEL/ INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL:
o 3 stages – sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory
- Free recall: people are presented with a sequence of items which they can recall in any
order they wish
- Serial position effect: consists of 2 different effects primacy and recency
o Excellent recall of the last items – recency effect
o Relatively well recall of first items – primacy effect
, o Earlier items: more rehearsal – storage in long-term memory
o Last items: active in short-term memory – high levels of recall
o Delaying recall: weakens recency effect – no effect on primacy
The delay is sufficient enough to eliminate the short-term memory’s
contribution but not the long-term memory
o Spacing between items: provides more time for rehearsal – enhances primacy
effect – doesn’t change recency effect
2. THE WORKING MEMORY MODEL:
- Immediate (short-term) memory is actually a number of interacting subsystems that
combine to host higher mental processes
- 2 subsystems incorporate verbal (phonological loop) and visual-spatial (visuospatial
sketchpad) coding
o Integration among these 2 by episodic buffer
o Supervision of operations of subsystems by central executive
The phonological loop: 2 subcomponents
o Phonological store: holds information temporarily, information will be lost if not
rehearsed
o Subvocal rehearsal mechanism: responsible for rehearsal
o coding with phonological loop is obligatory so even visually presented information
must be converted to verbal to be processed
Phonological interference:
- Irrelevant speech effect:
o Any spoken stimulus during processing of information has the potential to disrupt
memory, even if it’s irrelevant or told to be ignored
o Also disrupts visual information because it is eventually converted into verbal
o White noise disrupts perception but doesn’t impair recall
o Memory performance doesn’t depend on the intensity of the sound
o The disruption is not affected by the similarity between the sound and items
o Vocal music is more disruptive than instrumental
- Word length:
o Memory span is not necessarily limited by the number of items processed but also
how long it takes encode them
o Long words take longer to pronounce than shorter ones so the subvocal mechanism
can’t rehearse the information quickly enough to maintain it in the store
o Forgetting both during subvocal rehearsal and during recall
- Phonological similarity:
o Lists of similar-sounding items are more difficult to keep track of in STM
o It even occurs when information is presented visually
o Similarity of meaning has little effect
o This effect disappears if the lists are increased in length and people are allowed
several learning trials
