Change of Plans: Read Intro and Expt. 1 in article by Lee Brooks for Wed. Read Beth Loftus for Monday Nov. 29th

Memory Short-Term “Working” Memory

Overview of Memory Atkinson-Shiffrin Model Sensory Signals Sensory Memory Short-Term Memory Long-Term Memory ATTENTION REHEARSAL RETRIEVAL

Short-Term Memory process by which we hold information “in mind”

Short-Term Memory process by which we hold information “in mind” example: temporarily remembering a phone number

Characteristics of STM Capacity? Duration? How could you measure these parameters?

Characteristics of STM Limited Duration –Brown-Petersen Task: subject is given a trigram (e.g. C-F-W) to remember vocal rehearsal is prevented by counting backwards recall accuracy tested as a function of retention interval

Characteristics of STM STM decays over seconds

Characteristics of STM Limited Duration –Brown-Petersen Task Interpretation: rapid loss of information in STM (over a period of seconds…much longer than sensory memory)

Characteristics of STM Limited Capacity –How might you measure capacity?

Characteristics of STM Limited Capacity –George Miller –Subject is given longer and longer lists of to- be-remembered items (words, characters, digits)

Characteristics of STM Limited Capacity –George Miller –Subject is given longer and longer lists of to- be-remembered items (words, characters, digits) –Result: Subjects are successful up to about 7 items

Characteristics of STM Limited Capacity –What confound must be considered ?!

Characteristics of STM Limited Capacity –What confound must be considered ?! –Recalling takes time !

Characteristics of STM Limited Capacity –What confound must be considered ?! –Recalling takes time ! –It seems that the “capacity” of STM (at least measured in this way) depends on the rate of speech - faster speech leads to apparently larger capacity –Some believe capacity is “2 - 3 seconds worth of speech”

Characteristics of STM Limited Capacity –“c hunking”: grouping items into meaningful bundles increases STM capacity (in some sense) –Example:

Forgetting from STM Why do we “forget” from STM? –Does the memory trace decay? not likely because with very small lists (like 1 item) retention is high for long intervals

Forgetting from STM Why do we “forget” from STM? –Does the memory trace decay? not likely because with very small lists (like 1 item) retention is high for long intervals –Instead, it seems that information “piles up” and begins to interfere

Forgetting from STM Interference in STM is complex and specific

Forgetting from STM Interference in STM is complex and specific For example, severity of interference depends on meaning

Forgetting from STM Interference in STM is complex and specific For example, severity of interference depends on meaning –Subjects are given successive recall tasks with list items from the same category (e.g. fruits) –final list is of either same or different category - how is good is recall on this list?

Forgetting from STM Accuracy rebounds if category changes

Coding in STM How is information coded in STM?

Coding in STM How is information coded in STM? Failures of STM give some clues:

Coding in STM How is information coded in STM? Failures of STM give some clues: –Capacity decreases with increasing length of to- be-remembered words

Coding in STM How is information coded in STM? Failures of STM give some clues: –Capacity decreases with increasing length of to- be-remembered words –phonological similarity effect - similar sounding items are harder to remember than different sounding items

Coding in STM How is information coded in STM? Failures of STM give some clues: –Capacity decreases with increasing length of to- be-remembered words –phonological similarity effect - similar sounding items are harder to remember than different sounding items What does this suggest about coding in STM?

Coding in STM Information in STM can be coded in an “auditory” (or subvocal) way Try to sketch a model of STM with boxes and arrows