Baddeley working memory model

Question 1

Describe the episodic buffer in Baddeleys working memory model

Answer 1

• Temporary store for acoustic, visual and spatial information.
• Maintains a sense of time sequencing, limited capacity of 4 chunks.
• Combines information from other subsystems with LTM and links wider cognitive processes.

Question 2

Describe the advantage of Baddeley’s working memory theory

Answer 2

• It has support from laboratory experiments as the dual-task performance studies have supported the predictions of the WMM
• Baddeley (1875) found that when participants perform a dual-task (visual + verbal together), performance wasn’t different to when the tasks were performed separately.
• When they performed 2 visual tasks, performance declined because both visual tasks compete for the same slave subsystems whereas with the visual and verbal tasks there is no competition.
• This supports the theory because it shows that separate slave subsystems process visual and verbal output

Question 3

Describe the visuospatial sketchpad in Baddeley’s working memory model

Answer 3

• Temporarily stores visuospatial information.
• Has a limited capacity of 3-4 objects and is subdivided into:

1. Visual cache - stores visual data
2. Inner scribe - records arrangement of objects in the visual field, a process that allows you to rehearse visuospatial information to keep it in the visual cache.

Question 4

List the components of the working memory model suggested by Baddeley

Answer 4

1. Central executive
2. Phonological loop
3. Visuospatial sketchpad
4. Episodic buffer

Question 5

Describe the disadvantage of Baddeley’s working memory theory

Answer 5

• There is a lack of clarity on the central executive.
• It’s an unsatisfactory component that doesn’t explain anything,
• Baddely said that it’s “the most important but least understood component”, it needs to be more clearly specified than only being attention.
• Baddeley suspects it consists of separate subcomponents, attentional processes and an unconscious, automatic process.
• This means that the working memory has not been fully explained.

Question 6

Describe the phonological loop in Baddeley working memory model

Answer 6

• Deals with auditory (acoustic) information
• Preserves the order in which the information arrives

It’s subdivided into:

1. An articulatory process that allows maintenance rehearsal to keep information in the phonological store, has a capacity of 2 seconds
2. The phonological store stores auditory information.

Question 7

Describe the central executive in Baddeley working memory model

Answer 7

• It is an attention process with a supervisory role.
• It focuses, divides and switches our limited attention
• Monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave subsystems to tasks
• Has a limited processing capacity and doesn’t store information

Question 8

Describe the application of Baddeley’s working memory theory

Answer 8

• It has been applied to understanding amnesia
• Warrington and Shallice conducted a case study on an amnesiac KF after brain injury. He had poor STM for auditory information but had no problem with visual.
• His recall of words and digits was better when he processed them visually than when he auditorily processed them. His phonological loop is damaged, unlike the visual sketchpad.
• The nature of amnesia can be explained by the model.