memory - the working memory model

Question 1

who created the working memory model and why

Answer 1

baddley and hitch to replace the STM store in the msm due to criticisms

Question 2

what is the central executive

Answer 2

the ‘head of the model’ which controls attention, receives sense information and filters this before passing it onto the sub systems

Question 3

what is the role of the phonological loop

Answer 3

processes auditory coded information

Question 4

what are the two subsystems of the phonological loop

Answer 4

• primary acoustic store
• articulatory process

Question 5

what is the primary acoustic store

Answer 5

the inner ear holding words recently heard

Question 6

what is the articulatory process

Answer 6

the inner voice holding information via sub vocal repetition

Question 7

what is the role of the visuo spatial sketchpad

Answer 7

processes visual and spatially coded information

Question 8

what are the two subsystems of the visuo spatial sketchpad

Answer 8

• visual cashe
• inner scribe

Question 9

what is the visual cashe

Answer 9

a passive store of form and colour

Question 10

what is the inner scribe

Answer 10

active store holding the relationship between objects in 3D space

Question 11

what is the role of the episodic buffer

Answer 11

holds and integrates information from the phonological loop, visuo spatial sketchpad and central executive

Question 12

what was baddleys research into the phonological loop and visuo spatial sketchpad

Answer 12

asked participants to either perform 2 visual tasks ( tracking racking moving lights at the same time as describing the angles in the letter F ) or a visual and a verbal task

Question 13

what were baddleys findings in his research on the phonological loop and visuo spatial sketchpad

Answer 13

performance was much better when tasks were not using the same type of processing

Question 14

what do baddleys findings suggest about the phonological loop and visuo spatial sketchpad

Answer 14

that they exist as separate systems

Question 15

what was shallice and warringtons research on the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 15

they investigated the clinical case study of KF

Question 16

what were shallice and warringtons findings on their research on the phonological loop and visual spatial sketchpad

Answer 16

KF has selective impairment to his verbal short term memory caused by a brain injury however thew visual functioning of his STM is not affected

Question 17

what do shallice and warringtons findings suggest about the phonological loop and visuo spatial sketch pad

Answer 17

that they are separate processes that are located in different brain regions

Question 18

what was prabhakarans research on the episodic buffer

Answer 18

used brain imaging fMRI scans to observe participants brain whilst either performing tasks with separate spatial and verbal information or integrated spatial and verbal information

Question 19

what were prabhakarans findings in his research on the eipsodic buffer

Answer 19

there is more activation in the prefrontal cortex when information is integrated however posterior brain regions when the information was separate

Question 20

what do prabhakarans findings suggest about the episodic buffer

Answer 20

the episodic buffer exists in the prefrontal cortex

Question 21

what was baddleys research into the capacity of the phonological loop

Answer 21

participants were shown lists of words and then had to write them down in the same order. one contained monosyllabic words and the other contained polysyllabic words

Question 22

what were baddleys findings in his research on the capacity of the phonological loop

Answer 22

participants could recall more monosyllabic words than polysyllabic words

Question 23

what do baddleys findings suggest about the capacity of the phonological loop

Answer 23

the capacity is not determined by the number of items but how long it takes to say the word ( word length affect )

Question 24

what are the strengths of the wmm

Answer 24

• there is clinical evidence from KF
• it is a better explanation of STM than the msm which sees it as a passive store of information whereas the wmm is more accurate in describing how memory is used as an active processor
• research is generally lab based therefore highly controlled with strong internal validity

Question 25

what are the weaknesses of the wmm

Answer 25

• central executive has been criticised as a vague concept without a full explanation
• lab based studies have issues with external validity as most tasks lack mundane realism so cannot be generalised to memory in everyday life
• its impossible to directly observe the process of memory meaning inferences have to be made which could be incorrect