Memory - The working memory model

Question 1

What is the working memory model?

Answer 1

• The working memory model is a theoretical cognitive model of information processing designed by Baddeley to show how STM is organised and how it functions
• The model focuses on when your mind is active and when you are using STM to temporarily store or manipulate information (E.g: Solving a problem)

Question 2

What are the different parts of the working memory model?

Answer 2

• Phonological loop, processes sound information
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad, codes visual and spatial information
• Central executive, receives sense information and filters it before passing it to the two slave systems
• Episodic buffer, general store to hold and combine information from the VSS, PL, CE and LTM

Question 3

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 3

• The phonological loop processes sound information (acoustically coded)
• Contains:
• Primary acoustic store (Inner ear, storing words recently heard)
• Articulatory processes (Inner voice, storing via sub-vocal repetition)
• The phonological loop has the capacity of 2 seconds

Question 4

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 4

• The visuo-spatial sketchpad codes visual and spatial information
• Contains:
• Visual cache (A passive store of form and colour)
• Inner scribe (Active store of spatial relationships)
• The visuo-spatial sketchpad has a limited capacity of 4 objects

Question 5

What is the central executive?

Answer 5

• The central executive is the head of the model, receiving sense information, filters information before passing it on to the two slave systems (The PL and the VSS)
• The capacity is limited as it is only capable of dealing with one strand of information at a time

Question 6

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 6

-The episodic buffer was added to the WMM in 2000 as the model needed a general store to hold and combine information from the VSS, PL, CE and LTM

Question 7

How does patients SC and KF support the working memory model? (PL & VSS)

Answer 7

• Both patient SC and KF had STM difficulties with their PL functioning but not VSS after brain damage
• This suggests that the PL and VSS are separate systems in separate brain regions

Question 8

How does Klauer and Zhao’s study support the working memory model? (VSS)

Answer 8

• Klauer and Zhao found that spatial performance of remembering location of dots on a screen was more disrupted by a spatial interference task than a visual task
• Also a visual task of remembering Chinese ideographs was more disrupted by visual interference
• This suggests that visual and spatial processing are separate systems in the VSS

Question 9

How does Braver’s study support the working memory model? (CE)

Answer 9

• Braver provides biological evidence of the CE in the prefrontal cortex via brain scans
• Braver found an activation in the prefrontal cortex of the brain that was detected when completing CE tasks
• The level of activity in the brain increased with the difficulty of the task

Question 10

What is an advantage of the WMM?

Answer 10

• The WMM provides an improved description of STM as an active processor
• This is an improved description on the MSM which describes STM as a passive store of information

Question 11

What is working memory?

Answer 11

-Working memory is a limited capacity store for retaining information for a brief period while performing mental operations on that information

Question 12

How does Baddeley’s study support the working memory model?

Answer 12

• When asked to perform two visual tasks or a verbal and a visual task, P’s performed better when the tasks used separate processes
• This suggests that the PL and the VSS are separate and the VSS can be overwhelmed with too much information as it has a limited capacity

Question 13

What is a disadvantage of the working memory model of memory?

Answer 13

• As it is impossible to directly observe the processes on memory described in mental models it is necessary to make inferences on the basis of behaviour and brain scan images
• These inferences could be incorrect

Question 14

How does Prabhakaran’s study support the working memory model?

Answer 14

• Brain scans revealed activation in the prefrontal cortex when asked to complete a task with integrated spatial and verbal tasks
• This was compared to activation in posterior brain regions, when information was not integrated
• This suggests that the EB is in the prefrontal cortex