Varieties of Memory

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Varieties of Memory
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• Thomas G. Bowers, Ph.D.
• Penn State Harrisburg
• 2000

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What Types of Memories Are There?

• I. Working Memory
• Appears to be convergent evidence about the
  nature of working memory
• William James early work (1890/1950)
• Spoke of primary memory, inseparable from the
  stream of thought.
• Rich diversity of content
• Early identification of attention

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What Types of Memories Are There?

• I. Working Memory
• Auditory or Verbal Memory
• Speech-based store
• Some Qualities
• Digit Span - average is 7 (/- 2)
• Subvocalizing has been observed
• Errors tend to be sound alike
• Longer words or stimulus material is less likely
  to recall, because of difficulty in
  subvocalization
• Phonological storage system
• Other tasks as letter number sequencing
• Tend to be left hemisphere tasks

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What Types of Memories Are There?

• I. Working Memory
• Visual Memory or Imagery
• Short term - Connect stars, blocks or other items
• Scanning appears to preserve distance if using a
  imagery strategy, judging by preserved
  relationships between distance and reaction times
• Mental rotation of block figures - Processing
  speed matches the degree of rotation required

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What Types of Memories Are There?
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What Types of Memories Are There?
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Visual Memory Processing

• As the degree of rotation increases, the amount
  of time to process the change also increases
• There can be selective interference with imagery
• There is a small but reliable reduction of
  accuracy under imagery conditions

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Selective Interference
Percentage of false alarms
Auditory Signal
Visual signal
Visualizing
3.7
7.8
Auditory Image
3.6
6.7
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Imaginary Processing

• Kosslyn suggests imaginary may be processed
  differently than verbal or propositional
  information
• Some ambiguity in spatial imagery
• Images are saturated with meaning
• Some suggest we should be concerned with spatial
  imagery

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Imaginary Processing

• Spatial imaginary
• examples of Necker cube and Duck/Rabbit precept

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Working Memory

• Working memory system
• 1. Executive functions
• 2. Slave systems
• Rehearsal loop
• Visuospatial scratchpad
• Subvocalization thought to be importart

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Long Term Memory

• Propositional Material
• Imaginary Material
• Nonverbal material may be handled by applying a
  meaningful context
• Imaginary mnemonics
• Image elements interacting with each other
• For a word pair learning task
• As a cigar-smoking piano

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Dual Coding Theory of Memory

• Independent processing of verbal and nonverbal
  material
• Proposed by Paivio in 1970s

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Dual Coding Theory
Verbal
Nonverbal
Sensory Analysis
Imagen
Logen
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Dual Coding Theory

• Verbal and Nonverbal material should be processed
  more quickly in the appropriate modality

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Dual Coding Theory
Association
Size
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Secondary Memory

• Despite the evidence of different processing in
  terms of short term memory, evidence suggests
  secondary memory operates on a single process
• Appears to be the same for verbal and visual
  material

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Secondary Memory

• Memory for faces may operate independently of
  other systems
• We tend to demonstrate better recall for faces
  relative to abstract stimulus material
• This effect can be impaired by changes in
  orientation
• Prosopagnosia - impairment of facial recognition

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Secondary Memory

• Example from Thompson (1980)
• Upside down face of Margaret Thatcher

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Other Types of Memory

• Procedural Knowledge
• Knowing how to do things, solve or approach
  particular problems
• Declarative Knowledge
• Knowing about particular specific facts and
  elements of knowledge

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Other Types of Memory

• Hemispherical specialization in knowledge and
  memory
• There is extensive evidence of hemispherical
  specialization