Chapter 4 Working Memory

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Chapter 4 Working Memory
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Classic Research

• George Millermagical number 7 plus or minus 2
  digit span demo
• Brown/Peterson Peterson technique for studying
  working memory

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(No Transcript)
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• chair
• bed
• lamp

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• 498

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• Write down the 3 words (any order)

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• couch
• table
• desk

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• 152

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• Write down the 3 words (any order)

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• cabinet
• dresser
• bench

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• 339

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• Write down the 3 words (any order)

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• horse
• dog
• rooster

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• 234

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• Write down the 3 words (any order)

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Pronunciation time

• Working memory capacity for verbal materials
  number of items that can be pronounced in 1.5
  seconds
• Support pronunciation time for numbers differs
  among languages, memory span varies accordingly

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Classic Research

• Primacy recency effects demo

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• Listen to the following words, then try to write
  all of them down in any order

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• Clock Duck Telephone Boat
• Computer Book Picture Stapler
• Butterfly Apple Hammer Plate
• Floor Dress Tree Map
• Snake Candy Pencil Candle

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Baddeleys Model
Central executive
Visuospatial sketchpad
Episodic buffer
Phonological loop
Long-term memory
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Evidence for Baddeleys model

• Spatial phonological tasks can be done
  simultaneously without overloading working memory
• Simultaneous spatial tasks, or simultaneous
  phonological tasks will cause interference

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Baddeleys model

• Phonological loopacoustic confusions when
  memory errors occur, substitutions frequently
  rhyme with target
• Visuospatial sketchpaduseful for some types of
  tasks (e.g., architecture) sometimes used when
  phonological processing is suppressed (see study
  by Brandimonte saying la la la forced visual
  encoding of pictures, so they were available for
  a later task)

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Baddeleys model

• Central executivedecides where attention goes,
  selects strategies, inhibits distractions
• Episodic buffertemporary storage area where
  visual phonological personal historical info
  is integrated

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Individual differences

• People with good working memory tend to be
  verbally fluent, good note takers, follow
  directions well, and are good on reasoning tasks,
  are good at top down processing while reading,
  have high verbal SAT scores

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Individual differences

• Extremely high performance on working memory
  tasks by some people may be due to long-term
  working memory use Ericsson Delaney
  hypothesis expertise with material allows
  working memory to be used to store retrieval cues
  to items in LTM example is high digit span
  performance