SS3712

Cognitive Psychology

Short-term/ Working Memory

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 Short-term/ Working Memory
What is the capacity and duration of storage of STM?
• What is the difference between STM & WM?
• How to “increase” the capacity of our STM?
What is the mechanism for forgetting in STM?
• What are the difference between Proactive and Retroactive Interference?
• What is release from proactive interference?

How do we retrieve information from STM?

• What are the primacy and recency effects in the Serial Position
Curve?
• How do we search through information in STM?

What are the components in WM?

• What is the form of the stored information in STM?
• How do we use dual task to investigate WM?
• What is the WM span test?
• What is the individual differences approach to study WM?
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What is the difference between STM &
working memory(WM)?

• Short-term Memory (STM):____________

Storage

• Working Memory (WM): _______+_________

Storage Processing

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 What is the Capacity of STM?
Digit-span task
• given a list of 5 digits to immediately repeat back
• # of digits increases until making errors

Conclusion: Capacity of STM:

“7±2”
the magical number, _______items (Miller, 1956)
“4±1” items (Cowan, 2010)
Recent finding: ________

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 How to “increase” the capacity of our STM?

“7±2” items (Miller, 1956)

• Chunk: a _________________________
meaningful grouping of information
held in STM
• Recoding:
code or format
– Mentally transform into another _____________________
– grouping items into _______________
larger units

e.g., 5 4 0 5 6 8 4 2 7 0 0 vs. 540 568 2700

“B Y G R O U P I N G I T E M S” vs. “BY GROUPING ITEMS”

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How to “increase” the capacity of our STM?

Factors:
time/ mental resources to recode?
1. Sufficient ___________________

2. Mnemonic device
—_________________
rehearsal/ recoding strategy

3. Knowledge base
e.g. “P E T E E G E R P F M R I” vs. “PET EEG ERP fMRI”

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Video Guide: How to “increase” the capacity of our STM?

1. Do the superior memorizers have higher general cognitive

ability than an average person?

2. Are the superior memorizers born with superior memory?

3. Any photographic memory for superior memory?

4. What is the secret behind their exceptional memory

capabilities? What strategies did the superior memorizers use
to memorize things?

5. What did the experiment with the chess expert tell us about
memory ?
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 What is the ______________
Storage Duration of STM?
Brown-Peterson task (Peterson & Peterson, 1959)

• 3-letter stimulus (e.g. ”JDL”)

• number to count backward by 3 aloud
• After varying retention interval, recall the letter stimulus
IV: _______________________
Time interval before recalls
DV: The probability (%) of recall

Why asking participants to count backward by 3 aloud?

prevent_____________________
rehearsing the letters

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 What is the Storage Duration of STM?
Brown-Peterson task (Peterson & Peterson, 1959)
Conclusion: Result: 50% loss after 3s;
<20s
Storage duration in STM :______ only 5% left after 18s

Decay – forgetting is caused

passage of time
by _________________

Can counting backward be an interference?

• longer counting interval created more _________________
interference
• Look at study by Waugh &Norman (1965) on page 141 and figure 5.2

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 What are the difference between Proactive
and Retroactive Interference?
• Proactive interference (PI; “pro”-”forward”)
– earlier interferes with later

• Retroactive interference (“retro”- “backward”)

– later interferes with earlier

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 What is the mechanism for
forgetting in STM?
Demo

List I: 1 0 2 8 6 9 4 List II: 8 2 7 9 5 1 3 List III: 3 8 1 4 8 2 5

You will hear 3 different lists of 7 numbers, each

followed by different information. For each
list, recall the numbers after the tone
• Which list is the most frustrating for you to
recall? Why?
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 Summary: What is the mechanism for
forgetting in STM?
• IV:_____________________________________________
Type of information following the list of numbers
nothing
list 1: ________________
text
list 2: _________________
another list of numbers
list 3: _________________

• DV: recall accuracy

• _____________
retroactive interference.
• List ____________
3 is the most frustrating because they
are ________________________
the same type stimuli

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How to prevent proactive interference?
Release from proactive interference
Wickens (1972)
Brown-Peterson task

Each trial is as follows:

• 3 words from the same category
e.g. orange, cherry, grape
• a number for counting backward
• Recall the three words
• switch of semantic categories on Trial 4
e.g. lawyer, teacher, doctor

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 How to prevent proactive interference?
Release from proactive interference
Wickens (1972)
Results:
Trials 1-3
deteriorates
• Recall accuracy _____________
PI
• Buildup of ________________
Trail 4:
Switch of semantic category
Release from PI
______________________

Conclusion:
• semantic difference
STM is sensitive to _______________________
• The more different the word categories are, the
___________
higher the amount of release there is
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 Summary
What is the capacity and duration of storage of STM?
• Limited capacity: 7±2 (_________________task)
digit-span
• Limited duration: < 20 s (____________________task)
Brown-Peterson
Chunking
How to “increase” the capacity of our STM? ___________________
What is the mechanism for forgetting in STM?
• _______________,
Interference not _____________
Decay
Proactive Interference – older materials interfere forward in time
e.g. interference from _________
multiple trials on the same kind of material
Retroactive Interference – newer materials interferes backward in time
e.g. interference from a following ___________________
distractor task
Release from PI – reverse the decline in performance due to PI

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 What are the primacy and recency effects
in the Serial Position Curve?
Demo 1: Serial
Position (SP) Curve
• 1 word /s
• After 12 words
__________recall
Free
(recall the words in
any order)

Results:
higher
Slight Primacy Effect: _________ recall accuracy at the early SP due to
rehearsal
______________ _____________
LTM
last few
Strong Recency Effect: Higher recall accuracy at the ____________ SP
STM
due to recall fresh from _______________ 16
 What is the mechanism behind
Primacy effect?
Demo 2: Faster presentation
rate (i.e., spacing decreases)

Glanzer (1972)

IV: time spacing between items

(3s, 6s, 9s)

Results & Conclusions:

• smaller spacing  _________
less time for rehearsal
 harder to go to _________
LTM weaker
_________ Primacy effect
was not
• Recency effect ______________ affected
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 What is the mechanism behind
Recency effect?

Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)

• IV: Type of distracting tasks:

Immediate recall vs.
Backward counting for 10s vs.
Backward counting for 30s

Results & Conclusion:

• ______________effect
Primacy was immune to the interference effects of the
distracting task
• __________ STM
Recency effect, which relies on fresh recall from __________
was dramatically interfered by the distracting task
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How do we search through information
in STM?
High-Speed Scanning in Memory (Sternberg, 1966)
Questions:
 Is the search serial or parallel?
 Is it terminating or exhaustive?

• Task: study a list of digits, e.g. “3 9 7”

– Given a probe digit, e.g. “9”
– “Was the probe digits in the list?”
– As quickly as possible, button pressing, e.g. “ Yes”
• Manipulation: size of study list: 1-6 items (memory set size)
• Measure: RT (ms)
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 What is Information Processing Model?
An example: High-Speed Scanning in STM (Sternberg, 1966)
Repetition of the search
process

Stage Analysis

What is the searching process in STM?

• Serial / Parallel?

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How do we search through information in STM?
Is the search serial or parallel?
Serial Search

Prediction: RT should increase with memory

set size.

Parallel Search

Prediction: Reaction time should stay the same 21

across memory set size
 How do we search through information in STM?
Is the search serial or parallel?
Results
•The time needed to recognize a
digit increases with the number of
items in the memory set.

•extra 38ms to judge each digit in

the set (slope)

Conclusion: Search is serial.

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 How do we search through information in STM?
Is it self-terminating or exhaustive?
Exhaustive

Self-terminating

Prediction:
___________
smaller slope for “yes” trials than “no” trials
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How do we search through information in STM?
Is it self-terminating or exhaustive?
Results

Results
Same slope for both “Yes” and
“No” trials

Conclusion:

exhaustive
Search is ______________

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 Summary
Primacy Effect Recency Effect
Better recall in the Better recall in the
beginning of list— end of list—recall
rehearsal  LTM fresh from STM

High-Speed Scanning in Memory (Sternberg, 1966)

• Serial— scan one item at a time
• Exhaustive – the entire set is scanned on every trial, whether or not a match is found
• Scanning rate— 38ms/item
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What are the components in WM?
Baddeley (1986)
Working Memory (WM)

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What are the components in WM?
The Central Executive:
• assessing the attentional needs of the different
subsystems
• furnishing attentional resources to those
subsystems.
• Initiate control and decision processes
• Transfer information to LTM
• Reasoning, language comprehension
e.g. (6+5)x2
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 What are the components in WM?
Slave Systems
 Phonological loop:
passive retention
– Phonological Store for _________________
active rehearsal
– Articulatory Loop for __________________
 Visuo-spatial sketch pad:
– __________and
visual ____________information
spatial storage
• Episodic Buffer
– information from different modalities and sources are bound
together

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 What is the form of the stored information
in WM?
The Visuospatial Sketchpad
Shepard & Metzler (1971)

Task:
• Decide whether the 2 drawings
of 3D objects are of the same shape
the degree the 2nd drawing is rotated from the 1st
• IV:_______________________________________________
drawing
_________________
• DV: RT

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What is the form of the stored information
in WM?
The Visuospatial Sketchpad
Shepard & Metzler (1971)

Results
• RT ___________
increased as angular rotation
increased
Concludion
• Mental transformation on 1 of the
objects like _____________
manually turning
the objects
• ______________
Embodied cognition

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 What are the components in WM?
The Episodic Buffer:
• where information from different _____________
modalities (e.g. visual +
auditory) and __________(e.g.
sources WM and LTM) are bound together.
• where _______________process
chunking occur

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How do we use dual task to investigate
WM?
• a _________task
primary and a ____________task
secondary
performed simultaneously
• Both tasks must rely on ________
WM to a
significant degree
• Any competition or interference effects
between them?
– complete independence/ complete dependence/
some intermediate level of dependency

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 Dual task to investigate WM-
Interaction between CE & slave systems
Baddeley & Hitch(1974)
CE
Primary task: Reasoning tasks relies on __________
stimulus, e.g. “AB”
Active
(“A precedes B”)
Affirmative
Passive
(“B is preceded by A “) demands on
CE
Active increase
__________
(“B does not precede A”)
Negative
Passive
(“B is not preceded by A “)
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 Dual task to investigate WM-
Interaction between CE & slave systems
Baddeley & Hitch(1974)
Secondary task: Articulatory suppression tasks tap onto
_______________
phonological loop

demands on
• “the the the” phonological
• Repeat 1 to 6: “1 2 3 4 5 6” loop
__________
increase
• Repeat a random sequence of digits

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 Dual task to investigate WM-
Interaction between CE & slave systems
Results
• Adding “the the ..” & “1,2,3…” tasks
Increase RT______________
a little bit
no change on_____________
RT pattern
• Adding random digit task
 Different RT pattern
RT increased a lot when
sentence difficulty increases
________________________

Conclusion:
When the secondary task is very difficult, the articulatory loop
must drain off attentional resources from the
central executive
_____________________
 the executive can _______________maintain
no longer its speed or 35
accuracy
 Dual task to investigate WM-
2 slave systems
Logie et al. (1990)
• two different primary tasks:
– visual span task – visuo-spatial sketch pad
– letter span task— phonological loop
• two secondary tasks:
– mental addition task – phonological loop
– visual imagery task – visuo-spatial sketch pad

Primary Task 1
Secondary V 1 x P2 P1 x P2
Task 2 V1 x V2 P1 x V2
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 Dual task to investigate WM-
2 slave systems
Logie et al. (1990)
Results:
– _____________task
Visual span was greatly
interfered by visual imagery task
only
– ___________task
Letter span was greatly
interfered by mental addition
task only
Conclusions:

Substantial declines in performance

only when the primary and secondary
pool of resources.
tasks used the same_______________
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 Summary
Use dual task to investigate WM
• Between slave system &CE
– When the secondary task is very difficult, slaves systems
CE
must drain off attentional resources from the ______
Between slave systems
Great interference
– ____________________effect between two slaves
systems only when the primary and secondary tasks used
the same pool of resources

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