MEMORY- WMM

Question 1

Is this a model of STM or LTM?

Answer 1

STM

Question 2

Who created the working memory model?

Answer 2

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Question 3

Why was the WMM created?

Answer 3

B+H believed that there was not just one store, but a number of different stores

Question 4

Describe the research that B+H carried out

Answer 4

-Participants had to perform a reasoning task whilst simultaneously reciting aloud a list of 6 digits
-Digits span was a measure of capacity in the STM and participants would be expected to show impaired performance as their STM would be occupied

Question 5

What were the findings of B+Hs research?

Answer 5

-Participants made few errors but speed was slightly slower
-The verbal reasoning task made use of the central executive and the digit span task made use of the phonological loop

Question 6

Which case study provided evidence for there being more than one store?

Answer 6

KF- forgot auditoey info more than visual stimuli

Question 7

What does the central executive determine?

Answer 7

-How resources (slave systems) are allocated
-What working memory pays attention to

Question 8

What is the capacity of the central executive

Answer 8

None- data arrives from the senses but isn’t held for long

Question 9

Where is visual/spatial information stored (temporarily)

Answer 9

In the inner eye

Question 10

What does spatial mean?

Answer 10

The physical relationship between things

Question 11

What is the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 11

Unlimited

Question 12

What is the function of the visual cache?

Answer 12

Stores info about visual items

Question 13

What does the inner scribe deal with?

Answer 13

Spatial relations (eg. arrangements of objects in your visual field)

Question 14

When was the episodic buffer added to the WMM?

Answer 14

2000

Question 15

Why was the episodic buffer added?

Answer 15

-As a more general store
-Central executive has no storage capacity

Question 16

What is the difference between the visuospatial sketchpad (VSS), Phonological loop (PL) and the episodic buffer?

Answer 16

-VSS and PL are slave systems which deal with specific types of information

Question 17

What is the capacity of the episodic buffer?

Answer 17

Limited

Question 18

What is the function of the episodic buffer?

Answer 18

-Integrates info from all other areas (CE, VSS, PL)
-Deals with episodic (time-sequenced info)
-Sends info to the LTM

Question 19

What is the capacity of the phonological loop?

Answer 19

Limited

Question 20

What are the subdivisions of the phonological loop?

Answer 20

-Phonological store- hold words heard
-Artuicualtery processes- holds words seen/heard and silently repeats them ( a kind of maintenance rehearsal)

Question 21

What type of info does the phonological loop deal with?

Answer 21

-Auditory
-Preserves the order of information

Question 22

Give a strength of the WMM (KF)

Answer 22

-The case of KF supports separate STM stores
-KF had a poor STM ability for verbal info but could process visual info (although did have difficulty with sounds but could recall letters/digits)
-His phonological loop had been damaged but other areas were still intact
-Suggests separate visual/acoustic stores in STM
Counter: Evidence from brain-damaged patients may be unreliable because it concerns unique trauma, and findings are not generalisable

Question 23

Give a strength of the WMM (Dual task performance)

Answer 23

-The main reason for developments was to account for dual-task performance
-Task 1 (of B+Hs) research occupied the central executive (participants were given statement A followed by statement B and asked to say true or false ), task 2 either involved an articulatory loop (saying random digits)
-Task 1 was slower while Task 2 involved both the central executive and articulatory loop
-Demonstrates dual-task performance effect and shows that central executive is one of the components of working memory

Question 24

Give a limitation of the WMM (vague CE)

Answer 24

-Some psychologists argue that the concept of the central executive is too vague and doesn’t explain anything
-It only allocates resources and does the same thing as attention
-The notion of a single central executive is wrong and there are probably several components
-Eslinger and Bamasio (1985) studied EUR who had a cerebral tumour removed and performed well on tests requiring reasoning suggesting that his central executive was intact, however poor decision-making suggested that the central executive was not wholly intact

Question 25

Give a limitation of the WMM (VSS)

Answer 25

-Liberman (1980) argued that VSS implies all spatial was first visual info and that they are linked
-However, Lieberman argues that people with visual impairment such as blindness have good spatial awareness despite the fact they haven’t go any visual info
-The vss should be separated into two different components one for visual info and one for spatial