Diffusion modeling of interference and decay in auditory short-term memory

Tyler D Bancroft; Tyler M Ensor; William E Hockley; Philip Servos; Jeffery A Jones

doi:10.1007/s00221-019-05533-y

Diffusion modeling of interference and decay in auditory short-term memory

Exp Brain Res. 2019 Aug;237(8):1899-1905. doi: 10.1007/s00221-019-05533-y. Epub 2019 May 16.

Authors

Tyler D Bancroft^{1

2}, Tyler M Ensor³, William E Hockley⁴, Philip Servos⁴, Jeffery A Jones⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, St. Thomas University, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5G3, Canada. bancroft@stu.ca.
² Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5, Canada. bancroft@stu.ca.
³ Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5, Canada.

PMID: 31098672
DOI: 10.1007/s00221-019-05533-y

Abstract

Decay and interference are two leading proposals for the cause of forgetting from working and/or short-term memory, and mathematical models of both processes exist. In the present study, we apply a computational model to data from a simple short-term memory task and demonstrate that decay and interference can co-occur in the same experimental paradigm, and that neither decay nor interference alone can account for all cases of forgetting.

Keywords: Auditory; Decay; Diffusion; Interference; Model; Short-term memory.

MeSH terms

Acoustic Stimulation / methods*
Attention / physiology*
Female
Humans
Male
Memory, Short-Term / physiology*
Models, Neurological*

Abstract

MeSH terms

Grants and funding