Transcript BHS 499-07 Memory and Amnesia

BHS 499-07
Memory and Amnesia
Working Memory
Baddeley’s Model
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Baddeley and Hitch’s (1983) tripartite
(three-part) model
Central executive
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Two slave systems:
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• Control center of working memory
• Phonological loop -- processes
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verbal/acoustic information
Visuo-spatial sketchpad -- processes visual
and spatial information
Phonological Loop
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Components:
• Phonological store – temporary store for
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speech input
Articulatory loop – where subvocal rehearsal
happens (our inner voice)
Word length effect – word span is
smaller for long words than for short
ones.
Other Phonological Effects
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Articulatory suppression – talking about
something makes it difficult to remember
something else.
Irrelevant speech effect – background
speech, even in another language,
interferes with phonological processing.
Phonological similarity effect -- rhyming
causes confusion at recall.
Lexicality Effect
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Working memory can be affected by the
contents of long term memory.
• Memory spans are larger for lists of words
than for non-words.
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Long-term memory supports and
enhances phonological processing and
can even reverse some effects.
• Rhyming in the context of songs or sentences
helps, not hurts recall.
Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
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Operations of the visuo-spatial
sketchpad:
• Mental scanning – occurs as if seeing the
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actual object.
Mental rotation
Boundary extension – people redraw images
with boundaries not present in the original.
Dynamic memory – interpretation of perceived
motion.
Representational Effects
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Representational momentum – people
extrapolate along the current trajectory to
predict an object’s final resting place.
Representational gravity – memory for object
positions is distorted toward the earth.
Representational friction – objects moving in
space slow down with friction.
Context affects these phenomena (church
steeple vs rocket ship)
Central Executive
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Allocates attentional resources to
accomplish tasks.
• A catch all explanation for cognition theories.
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Distributes memory resources.
Memory can be improved by increasing
arousal and thereby working memory
resources.
• More sleep, gum chewing increases arousal
Central Executive (Cont.)
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Suppression – used to keep irrelevant
info out of working memory.
Dysexecutive syndrome – disorder
involving loss of central exec. function
• Perseveration – difficulty disengaging from
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one function and switching to another.
Distraction – drifting thought processes that
lock onto some environmental stimulus.
Span Tests
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Simple – one cognitive function at a time
Complex – two components:
• Retention
• Active processing – more than STM
Reading
Comprehension
Operation
Spatial