...* Liana Cornacchio * PSY Lab B11 * November 15, 2012 * Lab Report 1, Lab 5: Memory Introduction/Hypothesis * In this study we are putting Baddeley’s Model of Working Memory to test to see if working memory is in fact divided into parts three parts: the visuospatial sketchpad, central executive, and the phonological loop. Baddeley believes that the loop and the sketchpad do not interact; we formed a similar hypothesis. Working memory has separate systems for sound/verbal information and visual/spatial information. We hypothesized that there was no interaction between the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad, like Baddeley. So, the phonological distracter would more negatively impact the participants’ performance on the phonological task than the visuospatial distracter and vice versa. Methods * The participants of this study were random volunteers from Psy Lab section B11, the lab in which the study took place. The age range was 18-20 years old and there were 3 males and 3 females that took part in the study. To conduct this study Microsoft PowerPoint was used to create slideshows for the different situations described below. The Internet was also used for the distracters. To record the data we found we used Microsoft Excel as well as pen and paper. For the tasks that required the use of a timing apparatus, we used an iPhone stopwatch. To ensure there was no subject biases we used a Latin square to decide the order in which each individual...
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...Outline and Evaluate the Working Memory Model The working memory model (WM) explains why we can do two different tasks at the same time, but not two similar tasks. It replaced the idea of a unitary short term memory (STM) in the working memory model information is passed from STM to the central executive and this decides if the information is visual or auditory. Information is then passed to the corresponding store. The central executive is a key component of the WM. It directs information from STM to one of the "slave systems" It also has a very limited capacity and duration so can't attend to too many things at once. The first "slave system" is the phonological loop. This deals with auditory information and maintains the order of the information. It consists of two stores, the phonological store which is like an inner ear and deals with sounds and the articulatory process is used for words which are heard or seen. These words are silently repeated (looped) like an inner voice. The next "slave system" is the visuo-spatial sketchpad. This deals with visual information and spatial information is the relationship between this information. This store is used when you have to plan a spatial task such as getting from one room to another or counting the number of windows your house has. Hitch and Baddley showed support for the WM by conducting an experiment where they gave participants two tasks to do at the same time. They found participants were slower completing these tasks...
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...Outline and evaluate the working memory model (12 marks) Baddeley and Hitch proposed that memory has 4 components. The central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer. The central executive decides how to share out and direct attention to incoming information. The phonological loop can be thought of as a maintenance rehearsal mechanism for retaining verbal information. It is sub-divided into two other components, the phonological store (inner ear), which holds acoustically coded information, and the articulatory process (inner voice), which allows for sub vocal rehearsal (words you are about to say). Furthermore, the visuospatial sketchpad (inner eye) is responsible for storing visual and spatial information. In other words, it codes information in images and can create and manipulate visual and spatial images. Finally, the episodic buffer. This component takes information from different sources and integrates them together. For example, Baddeley suggested if we imagine an elephant playing ice hockey, we have to draw out images stored in long term memory and combine them into a moving image. The working memory model is good and is an improvement over the multi-store model. It demonstrates how the short term memory works because it explains how we can store information briefly and simultaneously manipulate it, for example, mental arithmetic. This shows that the model has face validity, which means that the test appears to measure what it is...
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...Outline and evaluate the working memory model. The working memory model was proposed in 1974 by Baddeley and Hitch, who felt that Atkinson and Schifrin’s multi store model, was too simplistic, therefore the working memory model acted as an alternative, unlike the multi store model the working memory model presents short term memory stores because it focuses on the short term memory. The term working memory is used by Baddeley and Hitch to refer to the part of the memory that is active, for example calculating sums or reading a sentence all of which are collecting data to be stored. There are three parts main of the original working memory model: the central executive, phonological loop, visual spatial sketch pad and the later added episodic buffer. The central executive controls attention and draws on the other the other two systems also known as slave systems. The central executive only has a limited capacity, which is supported by the dual task technique. This is when an individual struggles to do tasks that require the same component – this is because they are competing for the central executive’s capacity. There is evidence to suggest that there may be more than one component of the central executive, for example Eslinger and Damasio study. Their findings were that a patient, who had recently had a brain tumour removed, performed well on tasks that required reasoning, but not on decision making tasks. The two slave systems in the working memory model have similarities...
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...Cognitive Psychology In the article “On Applying Cognitive Psychology”, Alan Baddeley recounts several research experiences in which he yielded applicable results. His main purpose in writing this article is to demonstrate the ways in which cognitive psychology could be applied beyond the lab to ultimately create a link between theory and practice. In this article, Baddeley’s emphasis on the interplay between theory and practice can be understood through several of the research examples he wrote about. An example is Ivan Brown’s study in which he combined telephoning and driving to “demonstrate the practical importance of our limited attentional capacity (Baddeley).” Baddeley believes that concepts that are established in the lab could pave way to new theoretical insights that in the end yield a more profound understanding. The main idea overall is for researchers to come up with ideas for research that could be of practical use in the real world. I found this article to be fascinating as well as thought provoking as it gave insight to how research psychologists go about conducting experiments. One of the many things I found interesting was how Baddeley went about constructing a new visual recognition test called Doors of Dublin. I found it surprising that doors could provide more variety of realistic material “that in contrast to faces is unlikely to reflect a highly specialized anatomical system (Baddeley).” The results were shocking as there were some exceptions to the patients...
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...(Essay 1587 words) My topic is “Working Memory In the textbook, it is defined on pg. 259 as follows: Working memory, a newer understanding of Atkinson and Shiffrin’s second stage, concentrates on the active processing of information in this intermediate stage. Because we cannot possibly focus on all the information bombarding our senses at once, we shine the flashlight beam of our attention on certain incoming stimuli – often those that are novel or important. We process these incoming stimuli, along with information we retrieve from long-tem memory, in temporary working memory. Working memory associates new and old information and solves problems (Baddeley, 2001, 200; Engle, 2002). Reference in textbook on pages R-3 & R-17 Baddeley, A.D. (2001). Is working memory still working? American Psychologist, pg 56, 849-864. Baddeley, A.D. (2002, June). Is working memory still working? European Psychologist, 7, 85-97. Engle, R.W. (2002). Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 19-23. References to the three articles of my interest: My primary article: Marcus, W. (2011). School Based Working Memory training: Preliminary finding of improvement in children’s mathematical performance. Advances in Cognitive Psychology, V.7. My secondary articles: Wilson, K.M., & Swanson, H.L. (2001). Mathematics Disabilities Due to a Domain General or a Domain Specific Working Memory Deficit. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 237...
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...195). The visuospatial sketchbook must, in turn, also recognize different words, different body languages, cues and expressions used by speakers of different languages. The central executive has to choose which language on which to focus during which times and contexts. Baddeley believes that components of WM are more than just a “slave system used only in the acquisition of language” and calls for more “attempts to investigate its role in the control of action” (Baddeley, 2003, p. 200). In fact, he also continues to say that “working memory span has proved to be a robust predictor of a wide range of complex cognitive skills, ranging from reading comprehension to learning electronics” (Baddeley, 2003, p. 203). Although these systems are constantly being exercised by multiple languages, there are limits to the brain’s neuroplasticity. It is common knowledge that the later one learns a language, the less easily it can be picked up. Thus, it can be deduced that the earlier one learns a language, he bigger the benefits one can reap in terms of exercising and maximizing brain space for working memory. Bilinguals, by virtue of having...
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...MEMORY: REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS TO EDUCATION INTRODUCTION: Memory is generally defined as the processes of encoding, storing and retrieving information. These three processes interact with different memory systems. The memory systems that appear to be most important in the educational area are short-term memory, working memory and long-term memory. Memory is thought to begin with the encoding or converting of information into a form that can be stored by the brain. This encoding process is also referred to as registering information in memory. The memory systems that are involved in the encoding or registration of information in memory are sensory memory and short-term memory. Sensory Memory Information which first comes to us through our senses is stored for a very short period of time within the sensory register. Simply put, the sensory register is associated with our five senses – seeing (visual), hearing (auditory), doing (kinesthetic), feeling (tactile) and smelling (olfactory). However, the sensory buffers that have received the most attention in the research literature are the visual and auditory sensory registers. Generally information remains in our visual memory for a very short time, approximately several hundred milliseconds. This information or "image" is somewhat like an exact replica of what we have just seen, and it fades with the passage of time (Pashler and Carrier, 1996). Short-term Memory Most of the information that enters...
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...such as shape, size, colour and location (but not meaning), whereas the hearing system has echoic memory for auditory stimuli. Coltheart et al. (1974) have argued that the momentary freezing of visual input allows us to select which aspects of the input should go on for further memory processing. In this visual modality, information that enters the sensory store will be eliminated from the store within several hundred milliseconds (Baddeley, 1966). The existence of sensory memory has been experimentally demonstrated by Sperling (1960) using a tachistoscope. Short-term memory Information is retained acoustically and visually long enough to use it, e.g. looking up a telephone number and remembering it long enough to dial it. Peterson and Peterson (1959) have demonstrated that STM last approximately between 15 and 30 seconds, unless people rehearse the material, while Miller (1956) has found that STM has a limited capacity of around 7+ or −2 ‘chunks’ of information. STM also appears to mostly encode memory acoustically (in terms of sound) as Baddeley (1966) has demonstrated, but can also retain visuospatial images. However in many cases STM can be at a semantic level. In addition to using the short-term store (STS) as the primary memory device when desired for certain tasks, such as remembering a telephone number after looking it up, the STS fulfills various other functions. Instead of the memory system having to pay moment-to-moment attention to the environment to account for...
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...Baddeley (1986) described executive function as being a high-level cognitive function that controls and regulates the operation of various cognitive sub-processes during the performance of complex cognitive tasks. Baddeley (1999) referred to the central executive as being a limited-capacity attentional system that controls auditory and visual stimuli, and relates the stimuli to long-term memory (storing information over extensive time periods). More recent studies provided evidence of the non-unitary nature of the central executive (Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, Witzki, Howerter, & Wager, 2000). Miyake et al., (2000) referred to three components or functions of the central executive: (i) mental set-shifting: the ability to establish an attentional focus, mental set or problem-solving approach, and then to switch to another set according to environmental/task demands (McCallum, 2003); (ii) inhibiting pre-potent responses: the ability to over-ride 2. default responses to stimuli (Engle, 2005); and (iii) updating the content of WM: the selection of relevant information from the flow of incoming stimuli and internal knowledge, to be added to WM (Osaka, Logie & D’Esposito, 2007). Distinctions existed between the theoretical constructs of WM and short-term memory (STM). Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) proposed a STM model in which information passes through brief sensory registers which are part of the perception processes, and then moves into a limited capacity short-term...
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...The description and evaluation on the Working Memory Model Developed by Baddeley and Hitch (74’), the working memory model represents our short term memory; it is a dynamic processor of different types of information. The working memory model is categorised into four components which take on different roles when in the process of either storing or manipulating information. At the top of the model we have the central executive which is seen at the most important part of the model, its role is to co-ordinate and monitor the other three “slave systems” in the model. Below we have the other three components: The visuo-spatial sketchpad which stores data made up of visuals and spatial awareness within the two components of the visual cache and the inner scribe, the Phonological loop which deals with auditory information again consisting of two sections where one stores words we hear and the other allows maintenance rehearsal by repeating over and over (the phonological store and the articulatory process) and the final component added in 2000 by Baddeley; the Episodic buffer which links the working memory to long term memory and is used as extra storage for the VSS and the PL as these have limited capacity like the CE which places a timestamp on data. In 1997 Braver carried out a study where participants were given tasks designed to work the CE whilst having a brain scan. Researchers found most activity took place in the prefrontal cortex; front of the brain. As the task difficulty...
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...Memory 1. Describe STM and give an example Short-term memory, also known as primary or active memory, is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about. In Freudian psychology, this memory would be referred to as the conscious mind. The information found in short term memory comes from paying attention to sensory memories. A good example would be to write down a spoken telephone number before it is forgotten. 2. Describe and give an example of LTM Long-term memory refers to the continuing storage of information. In Freudian psychology, long-term memory would be call the preconscious and unconscious. This information is largely outside of our awareness, but can be called into working memory to be used when needed. Some of this information is fairly easy to recall, while other memories are much more difficult to access. A good example would be recalling the date of your wedding anniversary or families birthdays’. 3. Describe the multi-store model of memory Multi-store Model of Memory: Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) This model builds on the idea of three memory stores and tries to explain how they work together. Components Sensory Memory stores the incoming information from the senses. The model assumes that these are modality specific that is there is a separate store for each of the five senses. The store is very brief and the vast majority of information is lost here. Only information that is relevant or important is attended to and passed...
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...Atkinson and Shiffrin's (1968) Multi-Store model of memory was extremely successful in terms of the amount of research it generated. However, it became apparent that there were a number of problems with their ideas concerning the characteristics of short-term memory. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they called working memory. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) argue that the multi-store model is too simplistic. Instead of all information going into one single store, there are different systems for different types of information. Working memory consists of a central executive which controls and co-ordinates the operation of two subsystems: the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad. Baddley and Hitch investigated if participants can use different parts of working memory at the same time. They conducted an experiment in which participants were asked two perform two tasks at the same time - a digit span task which required them to repeat a list of numbers, and a verbal reasoning task which required them to answer true or false questions. The result was that as the number of digits increased in the digit span task, participants took longer to answer the reasoning questions, but not much longer. They didn't make any more errors in the verbal reasoning task as the number of digits increased. This was also known as the dual method. They concluded that the verbal reasoning task made us of the central executive and the digit span...
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...environment and holds it for a tiny period. Memory researchers have come to the conclusion that for each sense there is a separate sensory memory. These would include vision, hearing, touch and smell as well as others. Visual and auditory senses are studied the most. Visual sensory memory is sometimes called iconic memory because it refers to the short image of an image, or icon. Auditory sensory memory is sometimes called echoic memory because it is like an echo. (D. Hockenbury, 2009; S. Hockenbury, 2009 p. 233-235) According to Baddeley, short-term memory is the center that processes the sensory memory information then “holds that information for about 20 seconds and sends certain information to the long-term memory" (as cited in D. Hockenbury, 2009; S. Hockenbury, 2009 p. 232). It has a limited amount of space for storage of information. In the short term, memory is where old information from a long term memory is retrieved and processed. Baddeley stated that when thinking of the short term memory it is a good idea to think of it as a working memory for all the processes it does within the brain; it processes new incoming information to be transferred to the long term memory then it will retrieve the information as it is needed (as cited in D. Hockenbury, 2009; S. Hockenbury, 2009 p. 232). Long-term memory is the storage of information over a long period. The information retained through long-term memory has no time limit. Memory, both as short as twenty seconds and as...
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...in a tense mood. Cue-dependent forgetting can be supported by the fact that most people find that their recollections of childhood become less memorable as they get older. However, if they return to the place that they lived when they were a child, the streets, houses and school often serve to bring the past back to how they remembered. The physical environment of enfancy can act as an effective cue proving that many memory traces established a long time ago can be retrieved. The problem is we don't know what information is in the memory trace and which is extracted from the retrieval cue. So it may be difficult to know in some circumstances whether a true memory is accessed as a result of a cue or if the memory is a reconstruction. Baddeley argues the effects of context dependent forgetting only occur if the contexts in which information is learned and retrieved are vastly different. For example...
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