Lecture 10 Announcements About the Test

Thursday, October 12th 2023 Small room – must remember to be

TODAY’s PLAN: considerate of others still writing

CHAPTER 6 – PART 2 – Acquisition of PLEASE WAIT PATIENTLY FOR ME TO CHECK

Memories & Working Memory System YOUR TEST
NO EATING!
• Working Memory cont’d
DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOUR WILL NOT BE
• Central Exec, rehearsal loop, sketchpad TOLERATED
• Types of memory rehearsal
• Depth of Processing Findings
• Elaborative encoding and Mnemonics Grades Posted TODAY – Thank you for
• Mnemonics: Feats of Memory (video) patience
iClicker Questions! Test Review: NEXT WEEK
Details will be posted to UM Learn
Testing Claims about Primacy and Recency

Percentage of
Input position
words recalled
30-second
30-second Immediate
filled
un filled delay recall
delay

1 83 71 87

2,3 51 35 44

4,5 60 55 50

6,7 51 47 64

8,9 50 50 50

10,11 65 58 61

12 94 90 50
 Testing Claims about Primacy and Recency

Rate of list presentation and the serial-

position effect Serial position
Percentage of words
recalled

Slow presentation Fast presentation

Slow presentation – 9 seconds per item
Fast presentation – 3 seconds per item 1 60 55

5 35 25
Slower rate allows for more rehearsal time –
increasing the likelihood of transfer into LTM. 10 27 20

15 36 25

20 76 76
 Testing Claims about Primacy and Recency
No effect on recency
Percentage of words
Presenting the to-be- Serial position recalled

remembered items at
Slow presentation Fast presentation
a
___________________ 1 60 55

___________________ 5 35 25

__________________
10 27 20

15 36 25

20 76 76
Testing Claims about Primacy and Recency
Distinction between LTM and working memory confirmed with fMRI scans

Retrieval from long-term memory Retrieval from working memory

specifically activates the specifically activates the
_________________ ___________________
The Function of Working Memory
• Virtually all mental activities require _________________

• Working memory is used whenever multiple elements or ideas are

combined or compared in mind.
Digit Span Task
• Digit-span task: Participants hear a series of digits read to them (e.g.,
“8, 3, 4”) and must immediately repeat them back.
• The list length is increased until memory fails.
• The number of digits the person can echo back without errors is that
person’s digit span.

• Average WM capacity is estimated at __________________items….

Digit Span
• "7 plus-or-minus 2" chunks
• A set of information can be condensed into smaller "chunks" of
information.
• Example: H O P T R A S L U (nine items) à HOP TRA SLY (three
chunks)

• _______________ reduces WM load;

• …It does NOT increase Working Memory Capacity (WMC).
Operation Span
Digit-span addresses only WM
capacity, not its active nature.
• WM is best thought of as a
________________________ –
it is the name we give for a
certain set of mental activities.

• WM_______________________
___________!_in the brain.
Operation Span
• Operation span measures the capacity when WM is “working.”
• There are several ways to measure operation span, with the types
differing in what “operation” they use.

• Example:
Operation Span: Example Reading Span Task

“Due to his gross inadequacies, his position as director was

terminated abruptly.
It is possible, of course, that life did not arise on Earth at all.”
Operation Span
• _________________________correlates strongly with scores on:
• Standardized academic tests (e.g., verbal SAT)
• Reasoning tests
• _________________________
• These correlations are not evident with static span measures
• (e.g., digit span).
The Working Memory System “Components”
The working-memory system consists of multiple components:
• _________________
central executive – a set of processes that govern the selection and
sequence of thoughts; makes decisions, plans responses, and
coordinates helper components
• _________________
visuospatial buffer - helper component that deals with visual
material and imagery
• _____________________
Articulatory rehearsal loop – helper component that deals with
verbal or speech-based material
• ________________
subvocalization (silent speech) to launch the rehearsal loop
__________________
•phonological buffer passively stores the sound representations
• (“internal echo”)
• Sound alike errors
LECTURE 10:
iClicker

CHAPTER 6
Questions
 The Rehearsal Loop

Language (x-axis) Digit span (y-axis)

concurrent articulation Chinese
• _________________________ blocks Control
Suppression
8.9
6.4

the use of the articulatory loop. English

Control 7.5
Suppression 5.4
• Eliminates “sound-alike” errors Finnish
Control 7
(e.g., misremembering “F” as “S”) Suppression 5.6
Greek
Control 6.9
Suppression 5.7
Spanish

• Repeating syllables (e.g., “tah-tah- Control

Suppression
7.3
5.6

tah”) while completing a verbal digit- Swedish

Control 6.8

span test reduces WM capacity.

Suppression 5.7
 The Rehearsal Loop

Language (x-axis) Digit span (y-axis)

Chinese
• ________________________
concurrent articulation blocks Control
Suppression
8.9
6.4

the use of the articulatory loop. English

Control 7.5
Suppression 5.4
• Eliminates “sound-alike” errors Finnish
Control 7
(e.g., misremembering “F” as “S”) Suppression 5.6
Greek
Control 6.9
Suppression 5.7
• **For people who have been deaf since Spanish
Control 7.3
birth, they have an “inner-hand”… Suppression
Swedish
5.6

• Tend to make “same-hand-shape” errors Control

Suppression
6.8
5.7

• Wiggling fingers reduces performance

on memory tasks, just like saying “tah-
tah-tah” for hearing people!
The Working-Memory System
• Visuospatial buffer: storage of visual materials

• _______________
Episodic buffer: helps the central executive organize
information into chronological sequence
• Evidence from patients with amnesia – can’t put new information
into long-term storage, but who still can recall the flow of narrative
in a story they just heard.
Entering Long-Term Storage (LTM)

Two types of rehearsal:

1. __________________
maintanance rehearsal – thinking about the material in a
rote, mechanical way; repetition

2. _________________________rehearsal
Relational or elaborative – thinking about the material
in terms of meaning, relating the items to each other and to what one
already knows
 Two Types of Rehearsal
Relational rehearsal is superior to
maintenance rehearsal for LTM.
• Repeated exposure does not guarantee
memory!!
• Which of the images is the correct Apple
logo?

• Passive exposure and maintenance

rehearsal do little to promote memory!
Incidental Learning, Intentional Learning, and Depth of Processing

How does the intention to memorize

influence later memory
performance?

• ______________learning:
incedental learning
in the absence of an intention to
learn

• ______________learning:
intentional
deliberate, with the expectation
that memory will be later tested
Incidental Learning, Intentional Learning, and Depth of Processing
Participants heard a list of 24 words.

Intentional learning group: Remember as

many of these words as possible for a later
memory test.

Incidental learning groups:

Find the e
Count the letters
Rate how pleasant each word seems

All subjects had to recall as many words as

possible.
Incidental Learning, Intentional Learning, and
Depth of Processing
Intention to learn doesn’t
add very much to
performance.

What is critical is that you

approach the materials in the
right way!!
Incidental Learning, Intentional Learning, and Depth of Processing
Craik & Tulving (1975)

_______________
shallow processing: superficial engagement with the material
Example: Isisthe
theword
wordDOG
DOGin in
capital or or
capital lower-case letters?
lowercase
letters
__________
moderate processing: processing the sound-based properties of the material
Example: Does
Doesthe
theword
wordBEAR
BEARrhyme with
rhyme PEAR?
with PEAR

__________
Deep processing: requires thinking about the meaning of the material
Example: Does
Doesthe
theword
wordDOG
DOG fit fit
in in
thethe
sentence, “He"walked his _______.”?
sentence,
he walkes his ______"
Incidental Learning, Intentional Learning, and Depth of
Processing

How you engage with the

material will determine
whether memory will be
excellent or poor later on.
 Connections Promote Retrieval

When books arrive in a library, the librarians must catalogue them. Cataloguing doesn’t facilitate the “entry” of the
books into the library, because they are already there whether they are catalogued or not. But cataloguing makes the
books easier to find later on.
Memory connections may serve the same function: connections don’t “bring” material into memory, but they do
make the material “findable” in long-term storage later.
Connections Promote Retrieval: Examples
• Attention to meaning involves ______________________, thereby
making connections.

• “What words are related in meaning to the word I’m now

considering?”
• “What words have contrasting meaning?”
• “What is the relationship between the start of this story and the way
the story turned out?”
 Elaborate Encoding Promotes Retrieval…
Craik & Tulving (1975) – did target words
fit either simple or complex sentences,
and then surprise memory test
Example: CHICKEN
• Complex: : The great bird swooped down and
carried off the struggling _________.
• Simple: She cooked the ________.

Words were
______________________________________
rather than in simpler sentences.

Elaborate sentences lead to _________________

 Elaborate Encoding Promotes Retrieval…
Craik & Tulving (1975) – did target words
fit either simple or complex sentences,
and then surprise memory test
Example: CHICKEN
• Complex: : The great bird swooped down and
carried off the struggling _________.
• Simple: She cooked the ________.
 Elaborate Encoding Promotes Retrieval…
Craik & Tulving (1975) – did target words
fit either simple or complex sentences,
and then surprise memory test
Example: CHICKEN
• Complex: : The great bird swooped down and
carried off the struggling _________.
• Simple: She cooked the ________.

Words were more likely to be remembered if they

appeared in elaborate sentences rather than in
simpler sentences.

Elaborate sentences lead to richer retrieval paths

How Should I Study?
____________ Learning = spreading
out your study and learning across a
span of several days or weeks

_____________Learning = attempting to
learn a large amount of material in a
short amount of time
Mnemonics
Mnemonic strategies improve memory through organization.

• First-letter mnemonics
• ROY G. BIV (sequence of colors in the rainbow)
• "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” (to learn the lines in music’s
treble clef)
 Mnemonics
• ________________ strategies (using mental pictures to link to-be-
remembered items to each other – objects must be interacting or in some
sort of relationship)

• __________________systems
• Example: “One is a bun, two is a shoe . . .”
• To-be-remembered items are "hung" on the these "pegs."
• Mental imagery can aid in forming associations between the items and their pegs.
 Mnemonics

Roediger - 1980
In this study, students who relied on peg
words or interactive imagery while
studying the items outperformed students
who used other memorizing strategies.
Understanding and Memorizing

Nonverbal material
is also better
remembered if it is
understood.
The Study of Memory Acquisition
Memory is facilitated by _________________ and ________________.

• Contributions from the memorizer…

What was the memorizer doing at the time of exposure?
Example: maintenance rehearsal versus elaborative rehearsal
What does the memorizer already know?
Aids in making connections

Interconnections among acquisition, retrieval, and storage

Acquisition, storage, and retrieval are not easily separable.
One's ability to learn new material depends partly on having a framework of
prior knowledge already available.