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Working memory

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This document discusses working memory, including its definition as the processing space in the mind/brain used for computing information. It describes common models of working memory that include multiple subsystems like the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad. Examples are given of how working memory explains phenomena like phonological confusions, word length effects, and irrelevant speech effects. The document also discusses that working memory has limits, capacities vary between individuals, and it is crucial for learning due to its role in holding information during effortful tasks.

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In The Name Of the Most High

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Chabahar Maritime University Faculty of Humanities Working Memory Professor: Dr.Safaei By: Z.Dehghan May 2014

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Working Memory (WM)

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Overview  What is working memory?  When do we use working memory?  Are there limits to working memory?  Does working memory capacity vary between people?  Why is working memory so crucial for learning?

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Working memory

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What is working memory? • Working memory is a psychological construct that refers to the “processing space” in the mind/brain when a person computes information. • Working memory is, for example, where listeners fleetingly store and process linguistic data to analyze it for comprehension. • There are multiple theories and models of working memory, but what they all have in common is the idea that working memory has a limited capacity.

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Working Memory: The Structure Beneath Short-Term Memory • STM behaves differently depending on whether the things to be remembered are presented visually or auditorily, rapidly or slowly, or whether the items activate information stored in long- term memory and where in a sequence of facts a critical item falls. • Cognitive psychologists have developed a theory of the underlying mechanisms of STM not only to explain the properties of STM, but also to explain how STM helps us interact with the world and accomplish our goals.

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• This emphasis on the active and structural aspects of STM began with the work of Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960). • They called STM "working memory “ to emphasize that it serves as our support system for doing cognitive work, such as reasoning, listening, or making decisions. • Great progress in this effort to replace the static model of STM with a more process-oriented model of working memory was made by Baddeley and Hitch. • Their model of working memory is composed of the four subsystems :

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phonological loop Visuo- spatial sketchpad episodic buffer central executive

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Working memory

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Working memory

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Phenomena Explained by Working Memory • The following applications of the WM model illustrate how the four components of working memory function to explain three typical findings associated with STM: Phonological confusions Word-length effect Irrelevant speech effect

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Phonological Confusions Phonological confusions occur when people try to remember lists of words or sentences and find that their memory is worse for items that sound alike than for items that sound different.  As a result, the person trying to remember a series of words or letters that sound alike will be judged to have a smaller STM span than a person trying to remember a sequence that does not sound alike.

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Word-Length Effect  when you try to memorize vocabulary in a foreign language, the long words are more difficult to remember than the short ones. This phenomenon is termed the word-length effect.  STM span decreases as the length of words to be memorized increases.  How does working memory explain this effect?  Words with more syllables increase the number of sounds the articulatory control process must rehearse. Notice that long words not only have more syllables than short ones, they take longer to pronounce.  Working memory shows that the speed of articulation is the key to the capacity of short-term memory.

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Irrelevant Speech Effect • The ability of inconsequential background speech to interfere with silent verbal rehearsal is called the irrelevant speech effect. • It can occur even when the language being spoken is different from the language of the text you are reading. • This is because the speech sounds from the irrelevant speech enter the phonological loop and are added to the sounds associated with the words that you are trying to remember

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When do we use working memory?  Remembering a new telephone number, web address or a vehicle registration number while we are trying to find a pen and paper to write it down or to use it in some other way.  Following spoken directions such as ‘Go straight over at the roundabout, take the second left and the building is on the right opposite the church.  Calculating how much the bill will be at the supermarket checkout for the items we have in our basket.  Measuring and combining the correct amounts of ingredients when you have just read the recipe but are no longer looking at the pages.

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Are there limits to working memory? Here are some of the situations that often lead to the loss of information from working memory. Distraction Trying to hold in mind too much information Engaging in a demanding task

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Does working memory capacity vary between people? • There is a personal limit to working memory, with each individual having a relatively fixed capacity that may be greater or less than that of others . So, a particular activity may be well within the capacity of one person but exceed that of another. • Working memory capacity also increases with age during childhood. Young children typically have very small capacities that increase gradually until the teenage years.

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 WM is crucial to many learning activities in the classroom, because learners often have to hold information in mind while engaged in an effortful activity.  Learners with small working memory capacities will struggle in these activities, simply because they are unable to hold in mind sufficient information to allow them to complete the task.  Losing crucial information from working memory will cause them to forget many things.  Because learners with small working memory capacity fail in many different activities on many occasions, they will struggle to achieve normal rates of learning and will make poor general academic progress. Why is working memory so crucial for learning?

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• The cognitive sciences and the neurosciences, made an argument for the treatment of L2 working memory as a construct that contributes independently to the learning process. • Working memory is a multicomponent system. The system has been demonstrated in psychological studies to undergo considerable growth from childhood through early adolescence ,there is also growth in L2 working memory. • It is far more likely that growth occurs as a result of increased efficiency in the strategies carried out by working memory over time. • As these strategies compete with each other to construct meaning out of received input, they lead to changes in the interlanguage and in L2 working memory itself. • It is through this competitive process that acquisition of language occurs over time.

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Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life believing that it is stupid. -Albert Einstein

More Related Content

Working memory

  • 1. In The Name Of the Most High
  • 2. Chabahar Maritime University Faculty of Humanities Working Memory Professor: Dr.Safaei By: Z.Dehghan May 2014
  • 4. Overview  What is working memory?  When do we use working memory?  Are there limits to working memory?  Does working memory capacity vary between people?  Why is working memory so crucial for learning?
  • 6. What is working memory? • Working memory is a psychological construct that refers to the “processing space” in the mind/brain when a person computes information. • Working memory is, for example, where listeners fleetingly store and process linguistic data to analyze it for comprehension. • There are multiple theories and models of working memory, but what they all have in common is the idea that working memory has a limited capacity.
  • 7. Working Memory: The Structure Beneath Short-Term Memory • STM behaves differently depending on whether the things to be remembered are presented visually or auditorily, rapidly or slowly, or whether the items activate information stored in long- term memory and where in a sequence of facts a critical item falls. • Cognitive psychologists have developed a theory of the underlying mechanisms of STM not only to explain the properties of STM, but also to explain how STM helps us interact with the world and accomplish our goals.
  • 8. • This emphasis on the active and structural aspects of STM began with the work of Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960). • They called STM "working memory “ to emphasize that it serves as our support system for doing cognitive work, such as reasoning, listening, or making decisions. • Great progress in this effort to replace the static model of STM with a more process-oriented model of working memory was made by Baddeley and Hitch. • Their model of working memory is composed of the four subsystems :
  • 12. Phenomena Explained by Working Memory • The following applications of the WM model illustrate how the four components of working memory function to explain three typical findings associated with STM: Phonological confusions Word-length effect Irrelevant speech effect
  • 13. Phonological Confusions Phonological confusions occur when people try to remember lists of words or sentences and find that their memory is worse for items that sound alike than for items that sound different.  As a result, the person trying to remember a series of words or letters that sound alike will be judged to have a smaller STM span than a person trying to remember a sequence that does not sound alike.
  • 14. Word-Length Effect  when you try to memorize vocabulary in a foreign language, the long words are more difficult to remember than the short ones. This phenomenon is termed the word-length effect.  STM span decreases as the length of words to be memorized increases.  How does working memory explain this effect?  Words with more syllables increase the number of sounds the articulatory control process must rehearse. Notice that long words not only have more syllables than short ones, they take longer to pronounce.  Working memory shows that the speed of articulation is the key to the capacity of short-term memory.
  • 15. Irrelevant Speech Effect • The ability of inconsequential background speech to interfere with silent verbal rehearsal is called the irrelevant speech effect. • It can occur even when the language being spoken is different from the language of the text you are reading. • This is because the speech sounds from the irrelevant speech enter the phonological loop and are added to the sounds associated with the words that you are trying to remember
  • 16. When do we use working memory?  Remembering a new telephone number, web address or a vehicle registration number while we are trying to find a pen and paper to write it down or to use it in some other way.  Following spoken directions such as ‘Go straight over at the roundabout, take the second left and the building is on the right opposite the church.  Calculating how much the bill will be at the supermarket checkout for the items we have in our basket.  Measuring and combining the correct amounts of ingredients when you have just read the recipe but are no longer looking at the pages.
  • 17. Are there limits to working memory? Here are some of the situations that often lead to the loss of information from working memory. Distraction Trying to hold in mind too much information Engaging in a demanding task
  • 18. Does working memory capacity vary between people? • There is a personal limit to working memory, with each individual having a relatively fixed capacity that may be greater or less than that of others . So, a particular activity may be well within the capacity of one person but exceed that of another. • Working memory capacity also increases with age during childhood. Young children typically have very small capacities that increase gradually until the teenage years.
  • 19.  WM is crucial to many learning activities in the classroom, because learners often have to hold information in mind while engaged in an effortful activity.  Learners with small working memory capacities will struggle in these activities, simply because they are unable to hold in mind sufficient information to allow them to complete the task.  Losing crucial information from working memory will cause them to forget many things.  Because learners with small working memory capacity fail in many different activities on many occasions, they will struggle to achieve normal rates of learning and will make poor general academic progress. Why is working memory so crucial for learning?
  • 20. • The cognitive sciences and the neurosciences, made an argument for the treatment of L2 working memory as a construct that contributes independently to the learning process. • Working memory is a multicomponent system. The system has been demonstrated in psychological studies to undergo considerable growth from childhood through early adolescence ,there is also growth in L2 working memory. • It is far more likely that growth occurs as a result of increased efficiency in the strategies carried out by working memory over time. • As these strategies compete with each other to construct meaning out of received input, they lead to changes in the interlanguage and in L2 working memory itself. • It is through this competitive process that acquisition of language occurs over time.
  • 21. Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life believing that it is stupid. -Albert Einstein