HPS203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
HPS203 Week 6
Define operation span; describe the advantages of having a larger operation span
• The modern conception of WM is more dynamic- working memory is thought of as a
status rather than a place- rethinking how we measure WM capacity
• Operation span: a measure of working memory’s capacity. This measure turns out to be
predictive of performance in many other tasks, presumably because these tasks all rely on
working memory.
o The modern replacement for the (less useful) measure obtained from the digit-span task
• Various ways to measure operation span- with the various types differing in what
“operation” they use e.g. reading span
• WMC- working memory capacity
Advantages
• Hypothesis that someone with a higher span has a higher WM - someone with a higher
span should have an advantage in tasks that make heavy use of this memory
o Tasks that require you to keep multiple ideas active at the same time, so that you can
coordinate and integrate various bits of information
Someone with a larger span should do better in tasks that require the coordination of
different pieces of information
• Advantage in many settings: o Tests of reasoning
o Assessments of reading comprehension
o Standardised academic tests
• Less likely to have their minds wander and more likely to keep their thoughts ‘on task’
• Positive correlation with WMC and intelligence
Describe the three components of the working memory system and their functions
• Central executive:
o Needed for the “work” in working memory
o ‘Executive control processes’- needed to govern the sequence of your thoughts and
actions
o Setting goals, making plans for reaching those goals, and selecting the steps needed for
implementing those plans
o Help you whenever you wish to rise above habit/routine, in order to ‘tune’ your words or
deeds to the current circumstances
• Visuo-spatial buffer:
o Used for storing visual materials o e.g. mental images
• Articulatory rehearsal loop:
o Used for storing verbal material
Distinguish between maintenance and elaborative rehearsal and describe which is better
for long-term remembering
• Maintenance rehearsal: a rote, mechanical process in which items are continually cycled
through working memory, merely by being repeated over and over.
o Also called ‘item-specific rehearsal’
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