who outlined the working memory model
Baddely and Hitch
outline the four components of the WMM
the central executive, the phonological loop, the episodic buffer, the visuo spatial sketchpad
how do the components of the WMM link together as opposed to those of the MSM
the components in the MSM are linear whereas those in th WMM are inter-connected
where does the WMM and MSM differ (Prompt:STM)
they differ in that the WMM is an explanation of the STM specifically, believing the STM can perform multiple tasks at the same time
what is the function of the central executive
1)it controls all other slave components<br></br><br></br>2)decides what the WMM pays attention to<br></br><br></br>3)involved in decision making
what is the coding of the central executive
the central executives coding is multi-modal as each sense is coded differently
what is the capacity of the central executive
limited to no capacity
what is the function of the phonological loop
the phonological loop processes auditory/acoustic based information
what are the two stores of the phonological loop
the phonological acoustic store and ghe articulatory process
what is the function of the phonological acoustic store
it remembers sounds based off of the order they were presented in, sometimes referred to as the inner ear
what is the function of the articulatory process
this prepares speech by using rehearsal
what is the coding of the phonological loop
the coding of the phonological loop is acoustically based
what is the capacity of the phonological loop
the capacity of the PL is 2 seconds worth of speech
what is the function of the visuo-spatial-sketchpad
the VSSPs function is to process visual information
what are the two sub-components of the VSSP
the two sub-components of the VSSP are the visual cache and the inner scribe
what is the function of the visual cache
the visual cache stores information about objects based off of their shape and colour
what is the function of the inner scribe
the inner scribe handles spatial relations between objects, i.e by storing what object was where
what is the encoding of the VSSP
the VSSPs encoding was visual/iconic
what is the capacity of the VSSP
the VSSP’s capacity is 3-4 objects
what are the functions of the episodic buffer
1)intergrates information from the VSSP and PL together<br></br><br></br>2)facilitates communication between the short term and long term memory<br></br><br></br>3)serves as a temporary storage system
what is the storage of the episodic buffer
it has a limited storage of about 3-4 chunks
what is supporting studies for the WMM
“supporting research comes from baddeleys dual task performance studies:<br></br><br></br>1)Baddeley found participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks as opposed to one visual task and one verbal task<br></br><br></br>#the two visual tasks was tracking a light and describing the letter F<br></br><br></br>2)the difficulty stemmed from the fact the two visual tasks competed for and overloaded the same slave system (the VSSP) whereas the one visual and one verbal task did not compete for the same slave systems (the VSSP and the PL)<br></br><br></br>3)this research supports the idea that there are multiple independent components within the WMM that have limited capacities”
what is supporting EMPIRICAL research for the WMM
supporting empirical research comes in the form of PET scans conducted by Cohen et al:<br></br><br></br>1)cohen found that brain activity was higher in Broca’s area (associated with the PL) when participants were completing a verbal task<br></br><br></br>2)he also found that regions of the occipital lobe (associated with the VSSP) when participants completed a visual task<br></br><br></br>this provides strong neurocognitive support for the WMM, in that there are different components of the STM that carry out different STM tasks
what is a disadvantage of the WMM
a disadvantage is the central executive, the most important component, is oversimplified:<br></br><br></br>1)some data from the case study of EVR suggests his CE was in tact whilst other pieces of data suggest it was damaged<br></br><br></br>2)in the case study of EVR, whom after having a tumour removed performed well on tasks requiring reasoning, however he had poor decision making skills (i.e took hours to decide where to eat)<br></br><br></br>3)this suggests there are several components to the central executive rather than one
this should not be the case as according to the WMM as both tasks are acoustic based they compete for the save component(the PL) and overload it
this suggests the WMM does not give a complete picture of how different types of memories are processed
