Chapter 6

6.1: Mechanisms of memory

● memory: refers to the process of using information that was obtained in the past in
order to generate cognitive function in the present
○ encoding: refers to the initial processing of information so that it is
represented in the nervous system. Putting information into long-term
memory stores
■ example: in the short-term memory when physical stimulus is
transduced into a neural code that encodes a fact about the world
■ if something is not encoded => can’t be remembered
○ storage: refers to the retention of encoded information
■ encoded information by the nervous system stays encoded longer
than other immediate processing
○ retrieval: refers to the brain’s ability to access this stored information for some
cognitive purpose
■ if any of these links are broken => memory cannot function
● human memory => computer memory
○ both need encoding, storage and retrieval
○ failure at any stage = loss of memory
● specific form memories take can change a lot as they move from encoding to storage
to retrieval
○ example:
■ describe to your friend that you saw and acquaintance
■ processing leads to cascade of activity in storage involving many
cortical and subcortical brain regions that can store information for
both short and long term memory
■ retrieval allows you to describe the event
6.1.1: Measures of memory
● capacity: a measure of how much information a memory system can hold
● duration: a measure of how long information remains in memory
○ some information are really quickly lost but others stay for a long time

6.2 The modal model of memory

● multi-store/modal model: proposed that there are 3 basic kinds of memory each with
their own capacity and duration: sensory, short-term and long-term
○ incoming input from the environment is conceptually stored in the brain

●
○ short term memory => 15-30 seconds or a bit longer if it is rehearsed
○ some information from STM is encoded in LTM
○ long-term memory can hold information with no known capacity limit but some
is lost with time
● sensory memory: first stage in the modal model of memory. It briefly holds
information before it is processed. High capacity and short duration
 ● short-term memory: second stage of modal model of memory. Holds information for
rehearsal or to produce a behavioral output. Small capacity but a longer duration
(15-30 seconds)
○ example: repeat a phone number someone has just told you
○ maintenance rehearsal: the mental repetition of information in the STM, which
prolongs duration
○ some of the rehearsed information can go into the LGM
● long-term memory: the final stage of the modal model of memory which acts as a
cold storage of information for retrieval into short-term memory as needed for a
current task or behavior
○ only small fraction of STM is encoded as LTM => capacity
○ some memories can last a lifetime but many decays as well=> duration
● example: whatever you are thinking about right now is occupying your short-term
memory
● attention: the process that moves information from sensory memory into short-term
memory
6.2.1: Sensory memory
● persistence of vision: you can directly see information that entered your eye
moments ago, for a brief moment after it is no longer present
○ the trace of the object in one location is still present in our visual system after
the object has moved to a different location
○ retains the light pattern from the recent position along with the current patter
● Sperling experiment:
○ provides subjects with up to 12 pieces of information (letters) => 15-500 ms
○ asked them to recall all that they saw
○ subjects were typically able to recall about 40% of the information
○ realized that remembered letters from a specific they had payed a attention to
and was available to report
○ about 25% of the overall grid could be retained in the STM
● Sperling experiment 2:
○ partial report condition => asked to report only one rown based on the
presentation of an auditory tone whose pitched indicated which row
participants had to report
○ subjects were shown the grid for 50 ms followed by a tone that cued them to
which row they should recall
○ heard a high pitch =>associated with the top row
○ with the cue the participants were able to recall 75%-80% of the letters in the
row
■ could attend that line and call it into the STM
○ The shorter the delay, the higher the memory recall. Information decays from
sensory memory in under a second
○ 1 second delay => grid no longer available in the sensory memory =>
accuracy of 25%
● iconic memory: The visual form of sensory memory in which much of the visual input
can be stored for a short period of time. duration = 1 second
● echoic memory: an auditory form of sensory memory in which much of the auditory
input can be stored for a short period of time.
● sensory memory => help us first process sensory memory
6.2.2: Short-term memory
● STM => holds information that has been selected by attention for processing
○ function => hold information until it can be used for some behavioral task,
transferring information into the LTM or maintain information through
rehearsal
● STM can hold an average of 7 items (Miller)
○ in the visual domain in can hold 4 items
○ the average capacity to repeat the item without errors was 7
■ but some people had a capacity of 5 and others of 9 items
■ longer than 9 items is not usually possible
■ 9 = upper limit for human short-term memory recall
● The magical number 7 plus or minus 2
○ because some people have capacities that are higher than other
● measuring capacity in terms of digits does not capture the real capacity of the STM
● chunk: any combinations of letters, numbers or sounds that constitute a meaningful
whole. It is the proposed way to measure the capacity of the STM.
○ example: 1776149220013333 => 1776 1492 2001 3333
○ capacity of STM is not seven letter but seven chunks
● the capacity to chunk information into larger units depends on engaging the LTM =>
where patterns of previously encountered items are stored
● Luck and Vogel:
○ visual short-term memory (VSTM) => uses a change-detection task
○ screen with different objects
○ screen disappears and a new one is shown (could be identical or changed)
○ the smaller the set size => the higher the percent of correct response
○ after 4 items => the score begins to decline rapidly
● VSTM => capacity between 3-5 items
● 4 objects that each have different features (shape, color and orientation) => in totla
they remember 12 features
6.2.3: Chunking and expertise
● mnemonists: people who can memorize long strings of letters or numbers
○ skilled ability to form large chunks
● chess experts were able to remember the position of around 16 pieces => novices
could only remember 4
○ combining certain configuration of pieces together into meaningful chunks
○ only with real configuration
● The sensory memory of chess experts would not be better than non-experts because
they can only chunk information that is processed in STM not sensory memory
6.2.4: Duration of short-term memory
● maintenance rehearsal: the repetition of information in STM which essentially
reactivates the initial encoding in order to prolong its duration
○ if you have nothing else to do information can persist in STM if you keep
rehearsing
○ but not possible in the real world
● Brown-Peterson/Peterson task:
○ 2 research groups
○ tasks => participants told to memorize 3 letters
 ○ presented 2 digit numbers and told to count back of 3 out loud (prevent to
repeat/rehearse the 3 letters)
○ after a while the participants had to say their 3 digits
○ after a few seconds memory of trigram began to fade => 15-18 seconds later
they had little memory of the original trigram
● duration of STM without rehearsal => 15 seconds
6.2.5: Causes of forgetting in short-term memory
● 2 hypothetical explanation:
○ decay models => simply because of the passage of time
■ memory thought of like a leaky bucket in which information trickles out
○ interference => new information that comes into memory serves to displace
older information
■ proactive interference: cases in which learned information causes you
to forget something that you learn in the future
■ retroactive interference: cases where newer information causes you to
forget something from the past
○ example: study biology after reading a book and found that your memory for
the biology is inhibited by stored info from the book => proactive interference
○ example 2: studying for biology later causes you to forget information about
the book => retroactive interference
● Peterson and Peterson => attribute cause of loss to decay
● Some say its interference that causes loss
○ counting task => requires to remember each previous number which could
create retroactive interference
○ interference from long-term memory => especially when participants
performed multiple trials
■ some of the letters from previous trials could interfere with the current
trial
● Keppel and Underwood => suggests that both decay and interference are at work in
the loss of memory in STM
● Lewandowsky et al.: => not decay in the absence of interference
○ participant remember a sequence of letters by responding on a computer
keyboard
○ type sequence at varying speeds => could measure the effect of time on
recall
○ as they performed memory task => had to repeat an irrelevant word out loud:
articulatory suppression
■ prevent rehearsal without causing interference
○ no effect to speed at which participants had to repeat the letters of the items
○ passage of time without interference does not cause decay

6.3: The working memory model

● working memory (WM) model => STM is an active workspace where information
could be mentally manipulated based on the current task
● STM consists of 3 connected but distinct sub-units:
○ visuo-spatial sketchpad: the visual component of WM. Can be used to
analyze and manipulate visual information
■ ability to imagine and manipulate visual affirmation in your mind
 ■ example: mentally rotating a remembered object
○ phonological loop: the auditory component of WM, that allows auditory
information to be repeated so that it can be used or analyzed
■ ability to store auditory information in your mind
■ convert written materials into sounds
○ central executive: the gatekeeper that determines what information makes it
into the working memory
■ coordinator of information between working memory areas
■ toggle between visual and auditory memory stores
● WM differentiates between visual and auditory stores
○ auditory is really auditory memory
○ visual is really visual memory
○ when you replay a sentence you heard => same auditory properties as the
original (pitch, intonation)
● auditory memories seem to be encoded in terms of auditory properties
● Conrad experiment:
○ when people memorize a list of letters
○ more difficult => when letter sound similar to each other (c, t, v b)
○ easier => when they sound different (c, s, r, m, l)
○ acoustic confusions
● visual auditory buffers are separate from each other and don't interfere with each
other
● Brooks experiment:
○ each trial => participant had to either to an auditory or visual memory task
○ auditory memory task: hearing a sentence
■ auditory trials =>report if each word in the sentence was a noun or not
(Yes/No)
○ visual memory task: look at a block letter
■ visual trial => decide if each point is an extreme or not (point on inside
or outside corner of the letter)
○ verbal task => verbally respond yes or no
○ visual task => point to a Y or N on screen
○ people did better when they had to respond in a different modality than what
they had to remember
■ auditory memory task => better at visual pointing task
■ visual memory task => better verbal task
■ using the same mode as the working memory task => response time
increased
○ visual and auditory memory are processed separately and do not interfere
with one another
6.3.1: The central executive in working memory
● Vogel et al. experiment:
○ first stage:
■ standard task to measure short term memory capacity
■ 2 categories: high or low memory capacity
○ second stage:
■ 2 groups performed a specialized visual STM task
 ○ each trial participants were shown a directional arrow (cue screen) => to
show which side of the screen their supposed to remember
○ memory display (multiple colored rectangles)
■ some trials remember 2 blue rectangles
■ other trials remember 4 blue rectangles
■ third trial: presented with a mixture of 2 red and 2 blue rectangles
● only remember 2 blue rectangles (ignore 2 blue rectangles on
the left and the red rectangles)
○ after memory display disappears => delay
○ test display => another configuration of rectangles (remember if any of the
rectangles they had to remember had changed)
○ during delay => used EEG to measure electrical event potential
○ 4 blue rectangles: ERP was similarly strong for low and high capacity groups
○ 2 blue rectangles: ERP was similarly weak for low and high capacity
○ 2 blue and 2 red items: low capacity (strong ERP => were not able to ignore
distractors) and high capacity (low ERP => successfully filter out the
distactors)
● Vogel et al. suggested
○ low capacity => couldn't filter out the distactor rectangles (even if they were
not relevant)
■ central executive was not as effective
■ role of central executive => make sure unwanted information does not
enter memory because it would interfere with the information the
system actually want to retain
● central executive memory: coordinate between the visuo-spatial sketchpad and
phonological loop
6.3.2: The episodic buffer
● phonological loop mut interact with LTM
● episodic buffer: separate, time-limited, memory store that can combine information
from across different sources, including the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial
sketchpad as well as LTM
○ controlled by central executive
6.3.3: Individual differences in working memory
● training games => have very specific and possibly limited effects but do not appear
harmful in any way
● differences in short-term memory capacity are most likely attributed to central
executive

6.4: neural basis of short-term/working memory

● WM => consists of the initial perceptual encoding of information continuing on for as
long as the information is being actively remembered
○ happens all over the brain => in modality-specific regions
○ visual working memory => visual regions (occipital lobe)
○ auditory working memory => auditory areas (temporal lobe)
● frontal lobe plays an important role
● neuron in the prefrontal cortex that responded to a square when presented in the
visual field
○ made the square disappear and then gave a delay period
 ○ a cue to move the eyes where the square was
○ the neuron that had responded to the square went into overdrive during the
delay period => monkey had to remember the location
○ but if not given a memory task => the response disappeared
● delayed-match-to-sample task: shown an mage then a delay period then shown a
second image, then asked to deterine whether the 2 images are the same or different
○ test visual short-term memory
○ Schon et al.
● fMRI => increased activity in prefrontal cortex during the delay phase
○ important role of frontal cortex in short-term/working memory
● Moore et al.
○ damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex => patients show impairment on
tasks similar to the delayed matching tasks
● frontal lobe => executive function
○ possible that it is the site of central executive
○ important at directing resources of working memory
● both visual and auditory information at the same time => occipital lobe, frontal lobe
and temporal lobe
●