Working memory model

Question 1

Who proposed the working memory model?

Answer 1

Baddeley & Hitch

Question 2

What is the WMM?

Answer 2

• A representation of the STM (how it is organised & how it functions)
• model suggest the STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information
• consist of 4 main components

Question 3

What is the role of the central executive?

Answer 3

‘supervisory role’
- monitors incoming data
- focuses & divides our limited attention
- makes decisions and delegates tasks to 3 slave systems

Question 4

What is the capacity & code of the central executive?

Answer 4

• limited capacity
• does not store information so no duration or code

Question 5

What is the role of the phonological loop?

Answer 5

• ‘slave system’
• Temporary store that holds/deals with auditory/sound information

Question 6

What are the roles of the two subdivisions of the phonological loop?

Answer 6

• Phonological store (inner ear) - stores words you hear
• Articulatory process (inner voice) - allows for maintenance rehearsal

Question 7

What is the capacity & code of the phonological loop?

Answer 7

• limited capacity
• code = acoustic

Question 8

What is the role of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 8

• ‘slave system’
• temporary store that holds visual/spatial information

Question 9

What are the roles of the two subdivisions of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 9

subdivided by Logie

• Visual cache- stores visual information e.g. shapes, colours
• inner scribe- records arrangements of objects in the visual filed

Question 10

What is the capacity of the Visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 10

• limited capacity (3 or 4 objects)

Question 11

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 11

• ‘slave system’
• added as model by Baddeley(2000)
• temporary store for information that integrates information from the other stores e.g. visual spatial & verbal information
• seen as a storage component of the central executive
• links the WMM with the LTM

Question 12

What is the capacity of the episodic buffer?

Answer 12

limited capacity (about 4 chunks)

Question 13

What is a strength of the working memory model?

Answer 13

• research support
• Shallice & Warrington’s case study of patient KF who had amnesia
• after brain injury KF had poor STM ability for auditory info but could process visual info normally
• e.g. recall of letters & digits better when he read them than when they were read out loud to him
• KF’s phonological loop damaged but visuo-spatial sketchpad intact
• supports existence of separate visual & acoustic stores

Question 14

What is another strength of the working memory model?

Answer 14

• support from studies of dual task performance
• Baddeley et al participants carried out a visual & verbal task at same time (dual task)
• performance on each was similar to when the task were carried out separately
• when both tasks were visual or both verbal> performance declined
• Because both visual tasks compete for the same slave subsystem (VSS)
• shows there must be a separate slave system that processes visual input (VSS) & one for verbal (PL)

Question 15

What is a counterpoint to dual task performance support?

Answer 15

• use artificial tasks that do not represent the task we perform in everyday lives e.g. recalling random sequences of letters
• Also carried out in lab conditions > demand characteristics

Question 16

What is a limitation of the working memory model?

Answer 16

• lack of clarity over nature of the CE
• central executive needs to be more clearly specified than just simply ‘attention’
• some psychologists believe CE may consist of separate subcomponents
• this means CE is an unsatisfactory component & challenges integrity of the WMM