SS3712 Chap.5 Short-Term and Working Memory
Short-Term and Working Memory
Maintenance is not the whole system
Short-term memory holds a small amount briefly, while working memory maintains information during manipulation, reasoning and control. Chunking changes the functional unit by using long-term knowledge.
Selective interference supports verbal and visuospatial subsystems, while executive-control findings explain why distraction and transformation impair performance even when the item count is unchanged.
Count functional units, not visible marks
Immediate memory is limited, but a unit depends on organisation.
Familiar abbreviations, dates or meaningful groups can compress several elements into one chunk by drawing on long-term knowledge. Chunking therefore changes the coding of the material rather than removing the limit. Capacity comparisons must specify what participants know, how items are grouped and what counts as correct.
A highly trained person can remember more domain material while showing no general expansion on unfamiliar sequences. This is why span values should never be treated as context-free properties of an individual.
Use interference to separate components
The phonological loop maintains speech-based material through a temporary store and articulatory rehearsal.
Repeating an irrelevant word occupies rehearsal and selectively damages verbal sequence memory. A simultaneous spatial task more strongly disrupts locations and visual patterns. When verbal interference harms verbal material while spatial interference harms spatial material, the crossed pattern supports partly specialised resources.
General effort must be matched, because a harder secondary task could reduce performance everywhere. The episodic buffer helps bind information across modalities and with long-term knowledge, while the central executive coordinates updating, switching and inhibition.
Interpret span through the operation
Forward span mainly requires maintenance. Backward or ordered span adds transformation, monitoring and control.
A lower backward score does not mean storage capacity shrank; the same material now requires another operation. Change-detection tasks extend this logic by holding the relevant set constant and adding distractors. When irrelevant objects increase the measured load, the result shows a failure to control access rather than simple forgetting.
Applied supports should follow the diagnosis: externalise intermediate steps for storage burden, remove competing displays for filtering burden, and gradually withdraw support before a quiz that requires maintenance and manipulation together.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Modal memory model
- 02
Sensory memory
- 03
Short-term capacity
- 04
Chunking and knowledge
- 05
Working-memory components
- 06
Executive attention control
Worked example · free
Compare forward and backward span
- 2Identify the shared maintenance demand.
- 2Identify the added transformation.
- 2State the component burdened.
Key terms
- Working Memory
- A limited system for maintaining information while coordinating its manipulation.
- Phonological Loop
- The working-memory subsystem that maintains speech-based material through temporary storage and rehearsal.
- Central Executive
- The control component that allocates attention, updates goals and resists distraction.
Short-Term and Working Memory FAQ
How does working memory differ from short-term memory?
Short-term memory describes brief maintenance, whereas working memory includes maintenance plus manipulation and attentional control. Repeating digits forward emphasises storage; reversing, sorting or updating them adds executive operations even when the item set remains the same.
Does chunking increase memory capacity?
Chunking increases how much meaningful information can be represented within a limited number of functional units. It relies on long-term knowledge to recode several elements as one. Capacity claims therefore depend on the material, the learner's expertise and how a unit is counted.
Why do irrelevant items reveal executive control?
When distractors enter a change-detection display, they consume limited representational capacity despite being irrelevant. Larger distractor effects suggest weaker filtering, while smaller effects suggest more effective control over access. The relevant item set must remain constant for that inference.
Assessment move
Classify every task as maintenance, manipulation or control. Predict selective interference for verbal and spatial materials, then explain what the central executive contributes. Practise by converting a simple span task into an updating task and naming the added operation rather than saying it became harder. Redraw the component model and place one task on each connection.
Construct a dual-task comparison in which general effort is matched but the material code differs. For chunking, use the same symbols with familiar and unfamiliar grouping and explain why the functional unit changes. Review change-detection findings by separating storage loss from distractor admission.
Finally, remove external notes gradually while solving a multi-step problem so the revision method prepares both maintenance and manipulation under quiz conditions. Record whether each error lost an item or admitted a distractor.
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