PSY 368 Human Memory

Short Term Memory

 Announcements

• Quiz 2 today

• Exam 1 Feb. 15 (Wed)

• Experiment 1 Report. Due Feb. 15 (so start it early, so

that you can study for the exam)
 Experiment 1 assignment
• Experiment 1 - Primacy and Recency Effects in Short-term
Memory (modified from Neath & Surprenant book pg. 61)
• Download from BB assignments page. Find 3 friends willing to participate
• Report (Due Wednesday Feb. 15): The results for all subjects will be reported in class. Your
assignment is to write a 2-3 page report that includes the following:
• brief description of the purpose and design of the experiment, including independent and dependent
variables
• brief description of the participants, materials, and procedure of the study, written in your own words
• description of results and line graph of mean percentage recall by serial position
• discussion of conclusions that can be made from the results. Include answers to these questions:
• How long does short-term memory appear to last?
• How important is attention to retrieval from short-term memory?
• What kinds of everyday tasks in life use short-term memory?
 Structural Model

• Memory composed of storage structures that hold memories for

a period of time
• Sensory memory
• Short-term memory (STM) or Working memory
• Long-term memory (LTM)
 Short-term Memory
• Brief History
• William James (1890) associated STM
with consciousness
• Also called “ primary memory,”
“ immediate memory,” or “ working
memory”
• Modal models are prevalent in
descriptions of STM
• Focus on memory structure
 Modal Models
• Broadbent (1958)
• Three systems (stores): S-system (sensory), P-system (STM), LTM
• Some sensory info (filtered) goes from S to P-system
• Assumed STM had limited capacity and info must be REHEARSED to
keep it from fading quickly

• Atkinson-Shiffrin Model (1968)

• Sensory registers (by sense)
• Short-term store (STM)
• Long-term store (LTM)
• Executive control processes regulate flow of info between stores
 Short-term Memory
• Functions
• Re-codes info from sensory memory for longer storage
• Some info goes to long-term memory - stored for an
indefinite amount of time
• Rehearsal important part of STM
• Rehearsal maintains a memory trace for a short period of time
• Rehearsal helps transfer information from STM to LTM

• Features
• Capacity, Encoding, Duration, Retrieval
 Short-term Memory
• Features
• Capacity, Encoding, Duration, Retrieval
 STM Capacity
How much information can be held in STM?
• More limited capacity than Sensory memory
• Span = Measure of STM capacity
• Determined as 50% accurate ordered immediate recall
of short list (3-9 items)
• Visual or auditory information
 STM Capacity
• Miller (1956) proposed capacity =
7 + or - 2 “ chunks” of info
• Chunk = unit of info recoded from the
sensory input
• 1 chunk = 1 letter = 1 syllable = 1
word, etc.
 STM Capacity
Finding your Span: Free recall
•I’ll read a list of items to you, when I’m done I’ll ask you to
recall as many of the items as you can (any order)
• Ready • Ready

• Read list aloud • Read list aloud

• Check list: • Check list:

MPWSOYNCQALB mop pie water sun olive yo-yo

nose car quiz actor lake
banana
 STM Capacity
• Span differs slightly depending on definition
of“ chunk” (varies with “complexity” of the chunk)
• Digit span = 7.7 Letter span = 6.35
• Word span = 5.5 Trigrams = 3.2
• But span can also vary based on chunking abilities
(integrated and elaborated with knowledge in
LTM)
 STM Capacity
• Recoding can occur in STM if there is the time and
mental resources available to reorganize the
information
• Using long-term memory to recode information –
mnemonic devices
• Using a well learned strategy to recode information
• An example is verbally recoding information because
language usage is over learned

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 STM Capacity: Chunking
The capacity of the working memory may be
increased by “Chunking”

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 STM Capacity: Chunking
The capacity of the working memory may be
increased by “Chunking”

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 STM Capacity: Chunking
• Exceptional memory
• Chase & Ericsson (1981)
• Worked with S.F., who over 2 years (320 one hour training in a
lab practice sessions) increased digit span from 7 items to 79!
• S.F. member of track and cross-country teams, and would relate
digit strings to running times:
• e.g. for string 4 1 3 1...
• “ I made four thirteen point one a mile time...”
• But also used other things
• Remembers 1943 as “ near the end of World War II”
• But memory span for letters, words remained near 7
 STM Capacity: Chunking

• Chase and Simon (1973a, 1973b)

• Used chess players
• Novices – <100 hours
• Experts – >10,000 hours
• Place pieces on the board (up to
24 of a middle game or random
middle game) and players viewed
for 5 seconds.
 STM Capacity: Chunking

• Chase and Simon (1973a, 1973b)

• Information in memory is
stored as ‘chunks’
• A chunk is a familiar pattern
that can be used as a unit
• Masters have about 100,000
chunks
• Chunks can be recognized
instantly
• It takes about 10 seconds to
create a chunk
 STM Capacity: Chunking

• Chase and Simon (1973a, 1973b)

 Chunks are linked to
possible actions
 In chess:
identification of
weaknesses, moves,
plans

f1
 STM Capacity: Chunking

• Chase and Simon (1973a, 1973b)

Results:
• The chess master is
better at reproducing
actual game
positions.
• Master’s
performance drops to
level of beginner
when pieces are
arranged randomly.
 STM Capacity

Brief Summary
• STM can hold about 7 ± 2 chunks of information
But see Cowan (2000): Reviews 6 current views against
this idea
 STM Capacity: Encoding
• What is the nature of the information encoded in
STM?
 STM Capacity: Encoding
• Coding: the way information is represented
• Types of coding
• Auditory: acoustic, linguistic
• Semantic: meaning
• Visual: image
• Studies indicate that most info stored AUDITORILY
Conrad (1964)
• Presented letters briefly, were to write down the letters.
• Included letters that looked alike (V and X) or sounded alike (V and C)
• Analysis of errors indicated the tendency to confuse letters with similar
sounds – STM is auditory encoding
 STM Capacity: Encoding
• Coding: the way information is represented
Baddeley (1966)
• In all lists, the words either sounded alike (cat, hat, cat) had similar meanings
(tiny, small, little) or were unrelated

• Results: more errors when subjects

studied lists of words that sounded
alike (man, mad, cap) than words
that have similar meanings (big,
huge, long)

• Conclusion: Similar sounding words confused in STM because memory

code was acoustic. Semantically similar words confused in LTM because
memory code was using meaning
 STM Capacity: Encoding
• Coding: the way information is represented
Zhang & Simon (1985)
• Chinese radicals (no sound) and
characters (has sound) to Chinese native
speakers.
• Results –recalled 2.7 radicals (visual
code) versus 6.4 characters (auditory
code).
 Visual coding in STM
• Coding: the way information is represented
Shepard & Metzler (1971)
• Subjects shown 2 objects and asked if
they were the same or different in
different orientations

• Results: Subjects took longer to 2200

answer when the object had been 2000
rotated further 600, 900, 1200
1800
Same
Mirror
• Interpretation: people held the 1st 1600

figure in STM and mentally rotated 1400

the 2nd to make a comparison 1200

0 45 90 135

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 STM Duration
How long does information last in STM?
 STM Duration
• Duration of short term memory – Peterson & Peterson
(1959)/Brown (1958) procedure
• Experimenter says: CHJ 506
• Begin counting backwards by 3’s
• After a set time, recall three letters
• Subject says: 506, 503, 500…CHJ

• After three seconds of counting,

participants performed at 80%
• After 18 seconds of counting,
participants performed at 10%
 STM Duration
• Decay or Interference (Displacement)?
• Could the counting backwards have actually interfered with
memory – not just preventing rehearsal
• Keppel and Underwood (1962)
• Reexamination of Brown and Peterson data
• Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Was the memory loss the result of the passage of time- more loss as
more time passed
• Or was increasing the amount of counting backwards interfering with
retention?
• Wickens’ work (1963, 1970, 1972, 1976)
• Release from proactive interference

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 STM Duration
Keppel & Underwood (1962)
• Proposed P&P results because of the practice with trigrams in procedures. When
practice was eliminated the effects of delay in recall show little effect.
• Short term memory, when rehearsal is prevented, is about 15-20 seconds.

Results

P&P result: A large drop in memory for Little decrease in performance on trial 1,
letters for a delay of 18 seconds and more decrease by trial 3.
between presentation and test
• Conclusion: previous trials interfered with later trials – proactive interference
 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
• After the last digit, you hear a tone...

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 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6
Probe

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
• The tone is a signal to recall one of the digits. The last digit before
the tone (8) occurs only once at an earlier point in the list.

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 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6
Probe

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
Recall
• The subject’s task is to recall the digit following the probe.
• Between the digit, 4, and the tone, two things happen: (1) time
passes, and (2) more digits are presented.
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 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6
Probe

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
Recall
• Which is more important in causing forgetting, time or the more digits?
• The decay principle implies time; the interference implies digits.
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 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6
Probe

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
Recall

• Time and digits are correlated (confounded). To separate them, two rates of
presentation: slow (1 digit per second) and fast (4 digits per second).

35
 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6
Probe

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
Recall
• If decay causes loss of information from short-term memory, the 16 second
group should remember less because more time would have passed before
they responded
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 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6
Probe

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
Recall

• Made this comparison with the probe digit in each of the following
positions: 3 (shown here), 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, or 14.

37
 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6
Probe

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
Recall
• Results: Little to no (not significant) difference in recall with fast vs. slow
presentation with probes near the beginning of the list. Recall dropped
sharply as the probe was moved from the end toward the beginning.
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 STM Duration
Waugh and Norman (1965)
• Subjects verbally presented with lists of 16 digits at 2 presentation rates
• 1digit per second (takes 16 seconds to present list)
• 4 digits per second (takes 4 seconds to present)
• The last digit was the repeat of an earlier digit. Subjects asked to write
down the digit that followed the earlier digit. 4, 2, 6, 8, 9, 2 correct answer
is 6
Probe

7 0 8 4 1 6 0 9 5 5 3 7 2 4 7 8 TONE
Recall

• Conclusion: As time passes, what mainly causes forgetting from short-term

memory is exposure to additional information, not the passage of time.

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 STM Duration
Wickens, Born, & Allen (1963)
• Changing the nature of the items to be remembered reverses
the decline in performance due to proactive interference-
release from proactive interference
• Two groups of subjects given 3 trials following the Brown-
Peterson task (letters) - Memory performance declined with
each trial
• Control group given a 4th trial using letters
• Experimental group switched to remembering digits
 STM Duration
Wickens, Born, & Allen (1963)
• Changing the nature of the items to be remembered reverses
the decline in performance due to proactive interference-
release from proactive interference

• Experimental group, but

not control group,
performed perfectly;
they were released from
proactive interference

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 STM Duration
Wickens (1970, 1972, 1976)
• Proactive interference occurring as a result of semantic coding in STM
• 5 groups of subjects given 3 trials of lists of 3 words each all from the same
category where all list contained names of fruit
• Group 1 – names of fruit

• Group 2 – vegetable names

• Group 3 – flower names

• Group 4 - names of meats

• Group 5 – names of different

professions

• Then all groups given a 4 trial where all list contained names of fruit

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 STM Duration
Wickens (1970, 1972, 1976)
• Results:

1st trial all 2nd trial more words 3rd trial words 4th trial , shift to fruit category
in same category still in same
groups about 90% category professions 80%, meat 50%,
correct all groups about flowers 47%, vegetables 40%
50% all groups 35–45 and fruit 32%
%
 STM Duration
Wickens (1970, 1972, 1976)
• Results:

• Conclusion:
• Information was coded using semantic information causing groups to
confuse current list with previous lists
 STM Retrieval
How do we get information out of STM?
•Retrieval from STM appears to operate by searching STM
contents one at a time (serial search)
• Sternberg (1966)
 STM Retrieval
Sternberg (1966)
• study short list of 1 to 6 items followed by test probe - must
decide if probe item was in list, measured time to make Y/N
response

• Two important variables were involved

• The number of letters in each list
• The location of the letter in the memory probe – in the beginning,
middle, or end
 STM Retrieval
Sternberg (1966)
• Parallel processing • Serial processing
• Simultaneous handling of • Operations being done one after another
multiple operations • It should take longer to retrieve four digits
• Response times should be than to retrieve two digits
the same, regardless of • Exhaustive serial processing – the participant
the size of the set of always checks the test digit against all digits
items, because all in the set, even if a match were found partway
comparisons would be through the list
done at once
• Self-terminating serial processing – the
participant would check the test digit against
only those digits needed to make a response
 STM Retrieval
Sternberg (1966)
• Results
• Response times increased
linearly with set size but were
the same regardless of serial
position
• It indicates that serial exhaustive
model seems to be right
• Conclusion: people search all items in
• Subjects take longer to respond by STM when asked to retrieve an item
probe (by 40 ms) when an (happens very fast)
additional item is added to the list
• Same results for probes that were in • Automatic process - fast and efficient,
the list and probes that were not done for every item – doesn’t stop once a
match is found
STM Retrieval
Serial Position Curve
• Primacy:
• better recall for items in the
beginning of the list than
those in the middle

• Recency:
• better recall for items at the
end of the list than those in
the middle
• due to retrieval from STM
 STM Retrieval
Free recall Curve • Primacy:
• better recall for items in
the beginning of the list
than those in the middle
• Recency:
• better recall for items at
the end of the list than
those in the middle
From Murdock (1962) • due to retrieval from STM

• Models of STM propose that

• Primacy is due to more rehearsal for items at beginning of list - LTM
• Recency due to immediate dumping of items from STM
 STM Retrieval
Free recall Curve vs. serial recall curves • Primacy:
• better recall for items in
the beginning of the list
than those in the middle
From Klien et al.
(2005) • Recency:
• better recall for items at
the end of the list than
those in the middle
• due to retrieval from STM

• Models of STM propose that

• Primacy is due to more rehearsal for items at beginning of list - LTM
• Recency due to immediate dumping of items from STM
• Recency is stronger effect than primacy in free recall
Problems with the Modal Models

• When distractor task is done after every list item

preventing items from staying in STM, recency effect
still occurs
• Primacy effects have also been shown to disappear
when rehearsal is prevented
 STM Summary

• Duration:
• STM is short store of about 20 s without out rehearsal
• Interference, rather than decay
• Capacity:
• Can hold 7 + or - 2 “ chunks” (capacity)
• Chunking increases capacity of STM
• Encoding: Info mostly stored in auditory form
• Retrieval: Modal models suggest recency effects
mostly due to STM retrieval
 More Recent Models

• Current models of STM focus more on

processing (than structures) and typically are
models of Working Memory that include STM
in some form