Memory: topic 3 ‘the working memory model of STM’ Flashcards

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1
Q

Who created the working memory model?

A
  • Baddley and Hitch (1974)
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2
Q

What is the working memory model?

A
  • a model of short term memory
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3
Q

What are the 4 components in the working memory model?

A
  • central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer
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4
Q

What is the central executive and what does it do? [3]

A
  • known as the ‘boss’ and the ‘supervisory component’ of the WMM
  • it directs attention to incoming information and starts off the rehearsal process
  • it can code information from any modality (eg acoustic and visual)
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5
Q

What is the storage of the central executive and what is it able to do because of this?

A
  • the CE has a very limited storage but can delegate information into the ‘slave systems’
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6
Q

How is the central executive able to multi-task?

A
  • it co-ordinates the activity needed to carry out more than one task at a time using the different slave systems
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7
Q

What is the phonological loop?

A
  • one of the slave systems controlled by the central executive
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8
Q

What does the phonological loop consist of?

A
  • phonological store (‘inner ear’)
  • articulatory process (‘inner voice’)
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9
Q

What does the phonological loop do? [3]

A
  • codes and acts as temporary storage for holding acoustic/auditory information
  • deals with both written and spoken material
  • preserves the order in which the information arrives
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10
Q

What is the capacity of the phonological loop and what can it be subdivided into?

A
  • the PL has a limited capacity and can be subdivided into the phonological store and the articulatory process
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11
Q

What is the phonological store?

A
  • ‘inner ear’
  • rehearses sounds you hear (eg words)
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12
Q

What is the articulatory process?

A
  • ‘inner voice’
  • holds and silently repeats the words we are preparing to speak
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13
Q

What is the visuospatial sketchpad?

A
  • the second slave system or ‘inner eye’
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14
Q

What does the visuospatial sketchpad do? [2]

A
  • codes visual information (eg what objects look like in terms of form and colour)
  • codes spatial information (eg the physical relationship between objects)
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15
Q

What is the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad?

A
  • very limited capacity
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16
Q

What is the episodic buffer and when was it added to the WMM?

A
  • added to WMM in 2000
  • seen as the storage component of the central executive
17
Q

What does the episodic buffer do?

A
  • integrates information from the CE, PL and VSS
  • links working memory to long term memory
18
Q

What is the capacity of the episodic buffer and what is it able to do despite this?

A
  • limited capacity
  • able to code information from any modality whilst maintaining a sense of time sequencing which allows it to record events that are happening as a single memory rather than separate strands
19
Q

What is the evidence to support the WMM involving KF?

A
  • evidence that STM is not one single store, there are separate stores within STM
  • KF’s verbal STM was damaged but his STM was intact
  • supports the view that STM does have separate stores otherwise all memory would be damaged equally
20
Q

What is the evidence to argue against the WWM?

A
  • there is very little known about the central executive
  • there is a great deal of evidence to support the existence of separate visual and verbal STM stores, but little evidence to understand the main WMM component
  • eg we are unsure if it’s capacity and some argue it is an umbrella store to cover all the functions that cannot be explained by the slave systems
  • this is a problem as it seems the WWM cannot fully explain all aspects of the STM