Describe and evaluate the Working Memory Model (16)

Question 1

What is the WMM?

Answer 1

• Proposed by Baddeley and Hitch as an explanation of how STM is organised and functions
• Is concerned with the part of the mind that is active when info is temp. stored + manipulated
• Has 4 main components

Question 2

Central Executive

Answer 2

An attentional process that monitors incoming data and makes decisions about what to pay attention to

Allocates tasks to the slave systems but is thought to be able to store some data itself

Question 3

Phonological Loop

Answer 3

Deals with auditory info - coding is acoustic- and preserves order it arrives in

CONTAINS: phonological store (inner ear) - stores sounds you hear
+ articulatory process (inner voice) which allows sounds to be repeated in loop for maintenance rehersal

Thought to hold 2 seconds’ worth of sounds e.g remembering a phone number briefly

Question 4

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 4

Concerned with visual and spatial info
CONTAINS: visual cache - stores visual data
inner scribe - records arrangement of objects in visual field e.g no of windows in your home

Question 5

Episodic buffer

Answer 5

Added to model in 2000
Temporary store of info, integrating the visual, spatial and verbal, processed by other stores and maintains sense of time sequencing

Can be seen as a storage component of CE with limited capacity of 4 chunks

Links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception

Question 6

Clinical Evidence in Case Studies - AO3

Answer 6

Shallice and Warrington’s study of KF

• Had poor STM ability for verbal info but could process visual info
  => Suggests his phonological loop was damaged but not his visuo-spatial sketchpad

Question 7

COUNTERPOINT - Clinical Evidence

Answer 7

Despite case studies providing useful insight into memory function

=> Generalisability is limited as each case of brain damage is unique and it is not possible to control variables

Question 8

Dual task technique

Answer 8

Devised by Baddeley et al (1975)
Pps can more easily complete 2 tasks when 1 is visual and the other is verbal than 2 visual
=>Supports idea of separate system (VSS) that processes visual input

Question 9

Word length studies

Answer 9

Demonstrate people can remember fewer long words than short words

Supports idea that the articulatory process is a limited store - about 2 secs of spaces

Question 10

Further studies by Baddeley

Answer 10

When the PL is kept busy with articulatory suppression task (e.g. repeating Lalala) word lenght effect disappears

Supports idea that when PL is engaged memory tasks are taken over by other area, CE, where coding isn’t acoustic

Question 11

Critic of Central Executive

Answer 11

• Cognitive psychologists argue its role needs to be better explained
• Some suggest there may be separate components within CE
• Baddeley acknowledges it was the least understood component despite it importance

==> Remains area of working memory not adequately explained by Working Memory Model