memory 1.3

Question 1

what is the working memory model?

Answer 1

explanation of how short term memory is organised in its functions

it states you can complete tasks of different modalities at the same time e.g. walking and talking

Question 2

what happens when doing tasks of the same modality?

Answer 2

your workings of both is impaired because there are limited resources for one component of the model

Question 3

what are the four components of the working memory model?

Answer 3

central executive

phonological loop

episodic buffer

visuospatial sketchpad

Question 4

what is the central executive?

Answer 4

it has been described as an ‘attentional process’ with a very limited processing capacity, and whose role is to allocate tasks to the 3 slave systems

Question 5

who researched into the central executive?

Answer 5

Baddeley (1966)

Question 6

what was Baddeley (1966)’s aim?

Answer 6

to investigate the existence of the central executive

Question 7

what was Baddeley (1966)’s procedure?

Answer 7

he asked participants to think of random digits that bore no connection to each other (by tapping numbers on a keyboard)

it was either carried out on its own or with one of the following tasks:
- reciting the alphabet
- counting from 1
- alternating between letters and numbers e.g. A1 B2 C3

Question 8

what were Baddeley (1966)’s results?

Answer 8

the generated number stream was much less random in condition 3

Baddeley supports the idea of the central executive as it shows that there are limited resources due to participant’s poor performance in the more depending tasks

Question 9

what was Baddeley (1966)’s conclusion?

Answer 9

Baddeley said they were competing for the same central executive resources

Question 10

what is the phonological loop?

Answer 10

the slave store that deals with auditory information and the order of information

Question 11

two components of phonological loop

Answer 11

the phonological store (inner ear) which holds information in speech based form for 1-2 seconds

articulatory control process which is used to rehearse verbal information from the phonological store in loop
the capacity of this store is approximately 2 seconds worth of what you can say

Question 12

phonological store

Answer 12

(inner ear) which holds information in speech based form for 1-2 seconds

Question 13

articulatory control process

Answer 13

used to rehearse verbal information from the phonological store in loop
the capacity of this store is approximately 2 seconds worth of what you can say

Question 14

who researched into the phonological loop?

Answer 14

Baddeley, Thompson and Buchanan (1975)

Question 15

what was Baddeley, Thompson and Buchanan (1975)’s aim?

Answer 15

to investigate function of phonological loop

Question 16

what was Baddeley, Thompson and Buchanan (1975)’s procedure?

Answer 16

presented participants with five words for very brief periods of time and were asked to recall them

participants were placed in either one of two conditions:
condition 1 - monosyllabic words e.g. harm, bus, tin
condition 2 - polysyllabic words e.g. undeniable

Question 17

what were Baddeley, Thompson and Buchanan (1975)’s results?

Answer 17

average correct recall over seven trials showed participants remember short words much better

Question 18

what was Baddeley, Thompson and Buchanan (1975)’s conclusion?

Answer 18

evidence of word length effect supports phonological loop

Question 19

what is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 19

second slave store holds visual and spatial (relationship between things) information for a very short time

you use it when you are planning a spatial task i.e. going from your home to college

limited capacity of approximately 3 or 4 objects

Question 20

two components of visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 20

visual cache - stores visual data

inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 21

visual cache

Answer 21

stores visual data

Question 22

inner scribe

Answer 22

records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 23

who researched into the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 23

Shepard and Feng (1972)

Question 24

what was Shepard and Feng (1972)’s aim?

Answer 24

investigate functions of the visuospatial sketchpad

Question 25

what was Shepard and Feng (1972)’s procedure?

Answer 25

participants were presented with cube nets and asked to either try and fold the cube in their head and answer the question “do the points meet?” or had to physically fold it and answer the question

Question 26

what were Shepard and Feng (1972)’s results?

Answer 26

they found a strong correlation between time taken scores for mental and physical folding

Question 27

what was Shepard and Feng (1972)’s conclusion?

Answer 27

this suggests that we use the visuospatial sketchpad to do the folding much similar to real life

Question 28

what is the episodic buffer?

Answer 28

it integrates all types of data processed by the other stores (e.g. auditory) and so it’s described as the storage component of the central executive, as well as being crucial for linking stm to ltm

regarded as third slave system

forms whole ‘episodes of information’

it has limited capacity of about 4 chunks

Question 29

how does brain imaging evidence support the episodic buffer?

Answer 29

Prabhakaran et al. used Fmri scans and found greater right-frontal brain activation for combined verbal and spatial information, but greater posterior activation for non-combined information

this provides biological support for an eb that allows temporary storage of integrated information

Question 30

how does the patient study by Alkhalifa (2009) support the episodic buffer?

Answer 30

Alkhalifa (2009) described the case of a patient with severely impaired long-term memory who, nevertheless, demonstrated a short-term memory capacity of up to 25 prose items exceeding the capacity of both the pl and the vss

this provides support for an episodic buffer that holds information in working until it is recalled

Question 31

explain how patient kf supports the wmm

Answer 31

kf was involved in a motorbike accident which resulted in damage to his short term memory, specifically his verbal recall

when tested, he was only able to recall two items verbally from short term memory

if someone read aloud a list of items from a shopping list, he would only be able to recall two things on the list in comparison to when tested visually e.g. shopping list was a set of images, his recall was mostly unaffected

as a result, this case study suggests that working memory may have separate components to it, one for verbal like the pl and one for visual information like the vss

Question 32

explain how Paulesu et al. (1993) supports the wmm

Answer 32

evidence for separate components to the pl

Paulesi et al. put volunteers into a pet scan to measure the blood flow in the brain whilst they perform some memory tasks

one task was designed to use the inner voice and the inner ear of pl, they had to memorise a series of letters

the other task was designed to only use the inner voice, this involved making judgements about whether letters rhymed

researchers then compare the different parts of the brain that were activated during each task

they concluded that the articulatory control process (inner voice) was located in Broca’s area, in contrast to doing the task that used the inner ear a different area of the brain was activated known as the Left Supra Marginal Gyrus

suggests working memory contains separate components in the pl

Question 33

explain how problems with research criticise the wmm

Answer 33

this is because many of the dual task studies are carried out in highly controlled settings

they also sometimes involve highly artificial memory tasks that don’t reflect real life settings, for example lying down in a brain scanning machine whilst trying to memorise a series of randomised letters

there is also the issue of participants aware that they are taking part in psychological research and wanting to perform well known as demand characteristics

therefore, this weakens the evidence for the wmm as it lacks ecological validity because the tasks don’t reflect natual behaviour

Question 34

explain the criticism of the vss

Answer 34

research into the vss with people blind from birth has led to some interesting results

e.g a study by Wolbers et al. (2011) at Edinburgh University compared spatial awareness and showed that spatial awareness is not dependent on vision and spatial awareness is actually separate

this suggests that Baddeley and Hitch’s idea isn’t able to fully explain our memory and lacks credibility

vss could be divided into more than one component; one for visual working memory and one for spatial working memory