Its purpose is to organize the information received from the other components with information about time and order. [+]Cohen et al- higher brain activity in part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex during a task where the central executive was working. This supports WMM as it proves the existence of central executive through biological evidence. [+]Farah et al- patient LH and found that he was capable of visual tasks but was not capable of spatial tasks. This supports the WMM as it suggests that the VSSP consists of two stores, something that is also
Kahneman (as cited in Edgar, 2007) explains it in the limited capacity theory of attention. According to it, “the brain contains limited-capacity central processor responsible for analyzing incoming information and integrating it to information already held in memory” (Edgar, 2007, pp.11). Thus, when a person tries to do many things at once interference can occur if those things compete for the same pool of resources. However, Macleod (as cited in Edgar, 2007) showed that it is possible to do two things at once without interference. In his study, participants had to carry out a visual and an auditory task and respond to them by saying ‘bip’.
An experimental study of a variation of the Stroop Effect: the interaction of an automatic and controlled process and attentional processes on a colour identification task. Abstract Theories suggest that selective attention allows for only one channel of input to be semantically analysed, whilst other information is discarded. It has been stated that much of this is unconscious and automatic; and that these over learned, automatic processes can intrude on a colour identification task. This was examined in a variation of the Stroop Effect test [you need to briefly state what was actually done in the study] and results showed that ink colour identification was slower for a list of colour names than when neutral words were used. This supports that the unconscious semantic processing of words on an unattended channel was intruding upon a task of naming ink colours.
Outline the multi-store model and working memory model The multi-store model of memory is when information appears in Sensory Memory if attention is given to this it transfers to Short Term Memory, if the information is then rehearsed; it appears in the Long Term Memory. If at any time attention or rehearsal is not given to the information the trace decays and so because of this, we forget, however this need for rehearsal for transference into the Long Term Memory has been criticised as some information can be retained without any form of rehearsal. Within the multi-store model of memory, both Long Term Memory and Short Term Memory differ from each other in various ways; the duration of short term memory is 18 seconds, where as the duration of long term memory is a lifetime. The capacity of short term memory is found to be 7 + OR – 2, compared to long term memory’s unlimited capacity. As far as coding is concerned, there are also differences between short term and long term memory; short term is acoustic and long term is semantic.
Mental Rotation: How does the angular orientation of an object affect a participant’s reaction time? Shepard and Metzler‘s 1971 study demonstrated to Cognitive Science that mental images could be studied in an objective and quantitive way. They had internally noted the mental rotation phenomenon, to test it quantitively they developed a hypothesis. If a person mentally rotates objects in their mind, an increase in the angle of rotation would cause an increase in time needed to rotate it. They tested this by having participants’ match, as fast as they could pairs of geometric shapes that was either identical or mirror images, which were presented at different angles of rotation.
Discuss the value of the Multi Store Model of memory (12 marks) The MSM of memory consists of four main components: the Attention System (Sensory Store), the Short Term Store (often known as the working memory), the Rehearsal Loop and the Long Term Store. The Attention System filters incoming information. If this information is paid attention to, it gets transferred into the Short Term Store. However, if the information is not acknowledged it is lost/decays. The Rehearsal Loop allows the rehearsal of information resulting in it being transferred into either the Long Term Store, or due to maintenance rehearsal, the information will be able to stay stored in the Short Term Store.
Baddeley and Hitch used the term 'working memory' to refer to the part of the memory that is active or working. This could be as simple as playing a game, calculating sums or reading a sentence all of which are collecting data to be stored. The working memory model consists of three parts; these are the central executive, phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad. The central executive controls attention and draws on the other two systems known as the 'slave systems'. The central executive has a limited capacity; in other words it cannot attend to too many things at once.
The Effects of Retention Delay and Rotation on Spatial Memory. Abstract: The purpose of the experiment was to attain empirical evidence on how egocentric and allocentric representations are encoded in the short-term spatial memory, and how the manipulation of certain factors can affect this process. The aim was to discover whether rotating stimuli and increasing the time delay between observations and testing phases would have an effect on participants’ accuracy when remembering the position of a target. The study used a within subjects design, with all participants taking part in all conditions. A significant effect was found for rotation and also for the increased time delay, meaning that short-term spatial memory performance is greater when the orientation of the stimuli is not altered and when the retention delay is only a few seconds.
Outline and evaluate the model of working memory In this essay I am going outline what is working memory in terms of psychology and evaluate it in terms of both advantages and limitation of the working memory model. The fact that short-term memory contains both new information and information retrieved from long-term memory has led some psychologists to prefer the term ‘working memory’ (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974; Baddeley, 1986,1992) Working memory model is an alternative to the multi-store model; it is a far more complex explanation of short-term memory. Baddeley and Hitch argued that the short-term memory was made up of several subsystems, each of them have a specialized function, rather than the short-term memory model being a single inflexible store. According to Martin, G. N, Carlson, N.R & Buskist, W. (2006) “According to Baddeley, working memory is a short-term memory system that allows us to retain material for current use and not just for transport into long-term memory.” Baddeley suggested this short-term memory as having three independent components that allow us to store temporarily visuo-spatial material and verbal material. These components were so-called the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad and the Phonological Loop.
A model of memory is Atinson and Sriffrins 1968 multi- store model of memory. The multi-store model of memory shows that memory goes into seperate stores, first being the sensory memory where the sense organ picks up the sense, through iconic and echoc storage ecoding, the duration of the sensory memory is incredibly short of only lasting between a 1/4 and a 1/2 of a second. if attented to, the information from the sensory memory will pass to the short term memory. Once in the short term memory, the information is encoded mainy auditory and the duration is very short, with it only lasting about 0-18 seconds. its said that the capacity of stm is 7+-2 chunks, as millers study 1956 showed as showed the stm could hold approximatley 7 chunks of information at one time.