BHS 499 07 Memory and Amnesia Working Memory

BHS 499 -07 Memory and Amnesia Working Memory

Baddeley’s Model l Baddeley and Hitch’s (1983) tripartite (three-part) model Central executive l Two slave systems: l • Control center of working memory • Phonological loop -- processes • verbal/acoustic information Visuo-spatial sketchpad -- processes visual and spatial information

Phonological Loop l Components: • Phonological store – temporary store for • l speech input Articulatory loop – where subvocal rehearsal happens (our inner voice) Word length effect – word span is smaller for long words than for short ones.

Other Phonological Effects l l l Articulatory suppression – talking about something makes it difficult to remember something else. Irrelevant speech effect – background speech, even in another language, interferes with phonological processing. Phonological similarity effect -- rhyming causes confusion at recall.

Lexicality Effect l Working memory can be affected by the contents of long term memory. • Memory spans are larger for lists of words than for non-words. l Long-term memory supports and enhances phonological processing and can even reverse some effects. • Rhyming in the context of songs or sentences helps, not hurts recall.

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad l Operations of the visuo-spatial sketchpad: • Mental scanning – occurs as if seeing the • • • actual object. Mental rotation Boundary extension – people redraw images with boundaries not present in the original. Dynamic memory – interpretation of perceived motion.

Representational Effects l l Representational momentum – people extrapolate along the current trajectory to predict an object’s final resting place. Representational gravity – memory for object positions is distorted toward the earth. Representational friction – objects moving in space slow down with friction. Context affects these phenomena (church steeple vs rocket ship)

Central Executive l Allocates attentional resources to accomplish tasks. • A catch all explanation for cognition theories. l l Distributes memory resources. Memory can be improved by increasing arousal and thereby working memory resources. • More sleep, gum chewing increases arousal

Central Executive (Cont. ) l l Suppression – used to keep irrelevant info out of working memory. Dysexecutive syndrome – disorder involving loss of central exec. function • Perseveration – difficulty disengaging from • one function and switching to another. Distraction – drifting thought processes that lock onto some environmental stimulus.

Span Tests l l l Simple – one cognitive function at a time Complex – two components: • Retention • Active processing – more than STM Reading Comprehension Operation Spatial