4.1.2 Working Memory Model Flashcards
What is the working memory model?
The working memory model is an alternative model of short-term memory, suggesting that the STM has several components and is a dynamic processor of different types of information.
Who created the WMM?
Baddeley and Hitch
Why is the term ‘working memory’ used?
To indicate that the STM is a working space to keep in mind the tasks that we are performing.
How does the WMM contrast to the MSM?
It suggests that the STM is not unitary, whereas the MSM suggests it is a unitary store.
What are the four main components of the WMM?
Central executive
Episodic buffer
Phonological loop
Visuo-spatial sketchpad
What are the two components of the phonological loop?
Articulatory control system
Phonological store
What are the two components of the Visuo-spatial sketchpad?
Inner scribe
Visual cache (store)
Describe the central executive
The component of the WMM that co-ordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory, and allocates processing resources to these activities.
This means that it decides which system is required, and decided what working memory pays attention to.
It is a modality-free component so does not rely on a particular manner of receiving information.
It has limited processing capacity and does not store information.
Therefore, it directs attention and gives priority to particular activities.
Describe the phonological loop
The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound, including both written and spoken material.
It is one of the slave systems and is divided into the phonological store and articulatory process.
What is the phonological store?
It is what stores the words you hear and sound.
What is the articulatory process?
It allows maintenance rehearsal by repeating sounds in a loop to keep them in working memory until needed (about 2 seconds).
Describe the Visuo-spatial sketchpad
The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space.
It is a slave system divided into the inner scribe and the visual cache.
It has a capacity of about 3 to 4 objects.
What is the visual cache?
It stores visual data to remember what things look like.
What is the inner scribe?
It records the arrangement of all of the objects in the visual field.
Describe the episodic bufffer
The component of the WMM that brings together information from the other subsystems, and integrates them to construct a single mental episode of what is being experienced.
It also provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory.
It is seen as the storage component of the STM and has a limited capacity of roughly 4 chunks.
It maintains a sense of time-sequencing to co-ordinate all of the information into a meaningful experience.
