Showing papers by "Alan D. Baddeley published in 2010"

Musicians' and nonmusicians' short-term memory for verbal and musical sequences: comparing phonological similarity and pitch proximity.

Abstract: Language-music comparative studies have highlighted the potential for shared resources or neural overlap in auditory short-term memory. However, there is a lack of behavioral methodologies for comparing verbal and musical serial recall. We developed a visual grid response that allowed both musicians and nonmusicians to perform serial recall of letter and tone sequences. The new method was used to compare the phonological similarity effect with the impact of an operationalized musical equivalent — pitch proximity. Over the course of three experiments, we found that short-term memory for tones had several similarities to verbal memory, including limited capacity and a significant effect of pitch proximity in nonmusicians. Despite being vulnerable to phonological similarity when recalling letters, however, musicians showed no effect of pitch proximity, a result that we suggest might reflect strategy differences. Overall, the findings support a limited degree of correspondence in the way that verbal and musical sounds are processed in auditory short-term memory.

Binding across space and time in visual working memory.

Abstract: Recent studies of visual short-term memory have suggested that the binding of features such as color and shape into remembered objects is relatively automatic. A series of seven experiments broadened this investigation by comparing the immediate retention of colored shapes with performance when color and shape were separated either spatially or temporally, with participants required actively to form the bound object. Attentional load was manipulated with a demanding concurrent task, and retention in working memory was then tested using a single recognition probe. Both spatial and temporal separation of features tended to impair performance, as did the concurrent task. There was, however, no evidence for greater attentional disruption of performance as a result of either spatial or temporal separation of features. Implications for the process of binding in visual working memory are discussed, and an interpretation is offered in terms of the episodic buffer component of working memory, which is assumed to be a passive store capable of holding bound objects, but not of performing the binding.

Investigating the episodic buffer

Abstract: A brief account is presented of the three-component working memory model proposed by Baddeley and Hitch This is followed by an account of some of the problems it encountered in explaining how information from different subsystems with different codes could be combined, and how it was capable of communicating with long-term memory In order to account for these, a fourth component was proposed, the episodic buffer This was assumed to be a multidimensional store of limited capacity that can be accessed through conscious awareness In an attempt to test and develop the concept, a series of experiments have explored the role of working memory in the binding of visual features into objects and verbal sequences into remembered sentences The experiments use a dual task paradigm to investigate the role of the various subcomponents of working memory in binding In contrast to our initial assumption, the episodic buffer appears to be a passive store, capable of storing bound features and making them available to conscious awareness, but not itself responsible for the process of binding

Musicians' Memory for Verbal and Tonal Materials under Conditions of Irrelevant Sound.

Abstract: Studying short-term memory within the framework of the working memory model and its associated paradigms (Baddeley, 2000; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) offers the chance to compare similarities and differences between the way that verbal and tonal materials are processed. This study examined amateur musicians’ short-term memory using a newly adapted version of the visual-auditory (V-A) recognition method (Schendel & Palmer, 2007) within the framework of an irrelevant sound paradigm. We report evidence for a modality specific irrelevant sound effect: irrelevant tones disrupted memory for sequences of tones, whilst only irrelevant speech disrupted memory for sequences of letters. These preliminary results suggest that the adapted V-A recognition method will be useful for future parallel investigations of short-term memory for verbal and tonal materials.

The nature and position of processing determines why forgetting occurs in working memory tasks

Abstract: The effect of potentially distracting processing within working memory was examined by varying the nature and position of processing across conditions of a Brown-Peterson-like task. Separate groups of participants carried out verbal or visuospatial processing operations on identical stimuli, while retaining lists of to-be-remembered words. The number of words presented either before or after the processing interval was varied systematically. Results showed that although verbal processing was no more demanding than visuospatial processing, it led to greater forgetting. However, forgetting was confined to items presented prior to processing, and the difference in degree of forgetting shown by the two groups was maximal when four items occurred before processing. Temporal isolation effects were more marked in the verbal processing group. These findings indicate that individuals can keep active a limited number of items in primary memory during processing, unless processing blocks rehearsal, in which case retrieval occurs from secondary memory.

001 Concepts of memory

Abstract: Psychological and neuropsychological evidence indicates that human memory can be seen as comprising a number of separable but interacting memory systems. Information from the environment is first processed through a series of brief sensory memory systems that can best be regarded as part of the processes of perception. Information then flows directly into long-term memory, and in parallel into working memory, a system for keeping information “in mind”, while performing complex cognitive activities such as reasoning, learning and comprehending. Working memory can be decomposed into four subsystems comprising at the central executive, an attentionally limited control system, two modality-based storage systems one for acoustic-verbal information, the phonological loop, and the other for visuo-spatial information. A fourth component the episodic buffer provides a multidimensional temporary store that links these components with long-term memory and perception. Long-term memory can be split into two broad categories, explicit and implicit. Explicit memory comprises episodic memory, our capacity to recollect specific experiences; it is this aspect of memory that is particularly vulnerable to disease or brain damage. The second component is semantic memory which stores our knowledge of the world. There is a range of implicit systems which accumulate information that can later be used, but do not require conscious retrieval. Examples include acquiring motor skills, classical conditioning, perceptual priming and the general acquisition of habits.