performance of task requiring little information; tested immediately or right after

2.1 Cognition: Thinking & Remembering

Problem 1 – Learning to remember

Literature: Radvansky, Baddeley, Maltin

Short-term memory (STM) = performance of task requiring little information; tested immediately or right after

• System responsible for STM is part of working memory
• Limited capacity (7±2) chunks of information
• Expand STM through chunking (previous knowledge)
• Using long-term memory knowledge
• Retrieval from STM
• Serial exhaustive search – going through all items even after target was found (experiments support)
• Serial self-termination – going through items one at a time; stops when target was found
• Parallel search – all items are available at once
• Serial position curves
• Better at recalling info in the beginning and the end compared to “in between”
• Primacy effect

= Better memory of info at the beginning  Rather LTM effect (more opportunity to be rehearsed)  More time to rehearse → ↑ primacy effect  Activation of brain area responsible for LTM

• Recency effect

= Better memory for info at the end  Info is not interfered with by following info Working memory (WM) = can manipulate and shortly store info; “temporary mental workspace”

• Allows performance of complex tasks (e.g. reasoning/learning/understanding)

Memory span

• Remember items (e.g. numbers// numbers in foreign language)
• Remember order (e.g. sequence of digits)

- Miller (1956): Memory = limited by number of chunks (not items)

• Chunking = combing items to one chunk; based on long term memory

→ e.g. nonsense word into syllables that actually exist

• Grouping: e.g. through pauses 837192846 (difficult to remember) vs. 837-192-846 (easier)
• STM relies on acoustic code which fades quickly (forgetting)

o Study: Stings of consonants; recall errors likely to be similar in sound

Phonological loop

• Short-term memory store
• Limited capacity
• Items = memory traces (decay within seconds)
• Articulatory rehearsal process
• Refreshes traces through (sub-)vocal rehearsal
• ↑ number of items → ↑ time to rehearse → ↓ chance to refresh → Limited memory span

- Accounts for:

• Phonological similarity effect

 Letters (s.o.); words

 Long list of words: similarity of meaning ˃ similarity of sound

• Word length effect

 Recall: five one-syllable words ˃ five five-syllable words

 ↑ length → ↑time to speak → ↑word decay → forgetting during (sub-)vocal rehearsal

• Irrelevant sound effects
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