AS MEMORY - WORKING MEMORY MODEL

Question 1

Describe the first component of the WMM

Answer 1

Information enters the central executive from the sensory register (as WMM is all about the diff types of STM). The CE monitors incoming info from diff stores of the SR and allocates tasks to the two slave systems as it has in itself a very limited capacity. The coding of the CE is modality free.

Question 2

Describe the second component of the WMM (normally RHS of your diagrams!)

Answer 2

The phonological loop deals with auditory info and is a slave system to the CE. The PL is split up into the phonological store (inner ear), which holds words heard, and the articulatory process (inner voice), which allows maintenance rehearsal. Capacity is thought to be what you can say in about 2 secs.

Question 3

Describe the third component of the WMM (normally LHS of your diagrams!)

Answer 3

The visuo-spatial sketchpad is responsible for visual and spatial info, and has a capacity of 3 to 4 items. VSS can be broken up into the visual cache (responsible for visual info) and the inner scribe (records placement of objects in the visual field).

Question 4

Describe the fourth component of the WMM

Answer 4

The episodic buffer processes and integrates info from all other stores and links to the LTM. EB has a capacity of about 3-4 chunks of info at a time.

Question 5

Evaluate the WMM

Answer 5

(+) Baddeley et al (1975) found that ppts had difficulty performing two visual tasks (tracking a light and describing the angles of the letter F) at once, , which supports the idea of a visuo-spatial sketchpad with a limited capacity. Ppts found doing one visual and one verbal easy, as one uses PL and the other uses VSS. MSM can’t explain this.
(+) Amnesia patient KF had poor verbal STM recall (i.e. impaired PL) but his visual STM was fine (intact VSS). This supports the idea of different types of STM, as the WMM suggests.
(-) Evidence from KF is flawed as it’s a case study of someone who experienced trauma so poor generalisability to general pop.
(-) Lack of clarity over the CE; explanation of CE is unsatisfactory and doesn’t really explain much; WMM is an incomplete expl.