MEM 04 - Working Memory Model

Question 1

What is the Working Memory Model?

Answer 1

• It is a representation of STM in terms of how it is organized and how it functions.
• It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using subunits co-ordinated by a central decision-making system.
• The WMM is concerned with the ‘mental space’ that is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating information. It consists of four main components which all differ by capacity and coding.

Question 2

What are the four main components of the WMM?

Answer 2

• Central executive
• Phonological loop (inner voice)
• Visuospatial skeptchpad (inner loop)
• Episodic buffer

Question 3

What is the function of the central executive?

Answer 3

• It monitors incoming information, focuses and divides our limited attention and allocates tasks to subsystems
• Can switch attention between different inputs
• Receives sense information or LTM and filters it

Question 4

What is the capacity and coding of the CE?

Answer 4

Capacity:
- Very limited capacity as it is focusing attention on one input at a time
- 4 items capacity

Coding:
- It does not store any information

Question 5

What is the function of the phonological loop?

Answer 5

• It deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which information arrives
• This includes both written and spoken material
• The phonological loop is subdivided into the phonological store and the auditory process

Question 6

What is the function of the components of the phonological loop?

Answer 6

Phonological store, stores what we hear
Auditory process allows for maintenence rehearsal

Question 7

What is the capacity and coding of the phonological loop?

Answer 7

Capacity:
- Two seconds worth of what you can say

Coding:
- Auditory (sound)

Question 8

What is the function of the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 8

• It stores visual and spatial information in a mental space often referred to as the ‘inner eye’

Question 9

What is the function of the the components of the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 9

Visual cache, stores visual data
Inner scribe, records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 10

What is the capacity and coding of the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 10

Capacity:
- limited capacity of 3 or 4 items

Coding:
- Visually and spacially

Question 11

What is the function of the episodic buffer?

Answer 11

• It is a temporary store which brings together spacial, visual and auditory information from the other subsystems.
• It maintains a sense of time sequencing

Question 12

What is the capacity and coding of the episodic buffer?

Answer 12

Capacity:
- Very limited, only 4 chunks

Coding:
- Multimodal coded

Question 13

Who came up with the WMM? And when?

Answer 13

Baddeley and Hitch 1974