Working memory model

Question 1

Working memory model suggests that…

Answer 1

STM is not a single store but rather consists of a number of different stores

Question 2

Baddley and Hitch observation

Answer 2

Baddley and Hitch observed that
* If participants perform two tasks simultaneously that both involve listening, they perform them less well than if they did it separately
* If performed to tasks that involved listening and vision simultaneously there will be no problem

Question 3

Dual-task technique

Answer 3

Procedure where participants carry out two tasks at once

Question 4

Baddley and Hitch suggested that…

Answer 4

• Working memory should be seen as a kind of mental workspace which provides a temporary platform that holds relevant information to use in any cognitive task
• Once task is completed the information can quickly disappear and make space for a new round of information processing

Question 5

What the WMM says about multi-tasking

Answer 5

Argues that as long as we are using different short-term memory stores, then there should be no issue multi-tasking

Question 6

Central executive

Answer 6

an attention control system that monitors and coordinates the operations of the sub-systems of processing and storage

Question 7

The central executive has the capacity to…

Answer 7

focus attention, divide attention between two or more sources, and switch attention from one task to another

Question 8

The central executive has limited capacity, which basically means …

Answer 8

that you cannot attend to a lot of things at the same time

Question 9

Most important job of the central executive is…

Answer 9

Attention control

Question 10

Automatic level

Answer 10

based on habits that rely on schemas in long-term memory and are controlled more or less automatically by stimuli from the environment

Question 11

Supervisory attention level

Answer 11

• deals with planning and decision-making. It creates new strategies when the old ones are no longer sufficient
• It is also active in emergency situations
• The system is also involved in situations that require self-regulation

Question 12

The phonological loop

Answer 12

the auditory component of STM and it is divided into two components

Question 13

The articulatory control system

Answer 13

Inner voice – which can hold information in verbal form + believed to hold words ready for cognitive tasks

Question 14

The phonological store

Answer 14

Inner ear – holds auditory memory traces

Question 15

Articulatory suppression

Answer 15

means that participants are asked to repeat a word such as ‘the’ or a number such as ‘one’ while they memorize a list of words

Question 16

The visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 16

The visual component of STM and could be called the inner eye. It is a temporary store for visual and spatial information from either sensory memory or LTM.

Question 17

The visuospatial sketchpad helps us remember…

Answer 17

What visual information is important and where it is

Question 18

Episodic buffer

Answer 18

This buffer temporarily holds several sources of information active at the same time, while you consider what is needed in the present situation. This means - auditory and visual information together, as well as information from LTM.

Question 19

Evaluation of working memory model

Answer 19

• Widely accepted
• Experiments using dual-task techniques provide support for the model
• Can be used to explain why people are able to perform different cognitive tasks at the same time

Question 20

Limitations of the working memory model

Answer 20

• Oversimplified – doesn’t address how sensory information is processed and spatial memory within the model is not fully developed
• Difficult to identify nature of the processes associated with the central executive
• Interaction between four components is not well explained