Chapter 10: sensory and working memory

Some research suggests that there might be individual cells in the cortex that respond to the presence of a particular face or other complex object. These cells have been called

• complex cells

• hypercomplex cells

• grandmother cells

• concept cells

The claim that perception is a constructive process means that perception

• is based on our expectations as well as sensory data

• takes into account multiple elements

• starts with simple elements and combines them to form complex objects

• builds on past experience

The strongest evidence for the existence of separate short-term and long-term memory stores has come from research on

• attention

• depth of processing

• consolidation

• amnesia

In anterograde amnesia, patients

• cannot remember anything that happened to them before their injury

• have particular difficulty remembering events that occurred shortly before they were injured

• have difficulty forming STMs

• have difficulty forming LTMs

Shiffrin and Schneider assumed that words are represented in the brain by a set of neurons in the cortex that are activated whenever the word is presented. They called this set of neurons

• code

• neural cluster

• node

• record

In Shiffrin and Schneider’s model of memory, the short-term store was viewed as

• a temporary storage area where material was held before being transferred to the long-term store

• a subset of the long-term store of items consisting of the items that are currently active

• a specialized store for holding verbal material

• a specialized store for holding auditory material

According to Shiffrin and Schneider,

• STM holds material before it is transferred to LTM

• STM and LTM reside in different areas of the brain

• STM consists of those items in LTM that are currently in an active state

• which node is activated by a word depends on the context in which it is presented

Working memory is another way to conceptualize…

• Sensory memory

• Short term memory

• Long term memory

• The modal model

In Baddeley and Hitch’s model of working memory, the component that holds speech-based material is called the

• auditory loop

• phonological loop

• auditory store

• phonological store

Which of the following seems to be the most important in

determining our memory span for words?

• the meaning of the words

• the number of letters

• the number of syllables

• the time required to pronounce them