MEMORY- WMM Flashcards
Is this a model of STM or LTM?
STM
Who created the working memory model?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
Why was the WMM created?
B+H believed that there was not just one store, but a number of different stores
Describe the research that B+H carried out
-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
What were the findings of B+Hs research?
-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
Which case study provided evidence for there being more than one store?
KF- forgot auditoey info more than visual stimuli
What does the central executive determine?
-How resources (slave systems) are allocated
-What working memory pays attention to
What is the capacity of the central executive
None- data arrives from the senses but isn’t held for long
Where is visual/spatial information stored (temporarily)
In the inner eye
What does spatial mean?
The physical relationship between things
What is the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad?
Unlimited
What is the function of the visual cache?
Stores info about visual items
What does the inner scribe deal with?
Spatial relations (eg. arrangements of objects in your visual field)
When was the episodic buffer added to the WMM?
2000
Why was the episodic buffer added?
-As a more general store
-Central executive has no storage capacity
What is the difference between the visuospatial sketchpad (VSS), Phonological loop (PL) and the episodic buffer?
-VSS and PL are slave systems which deal with specific types of information
What is the capacity of the episodic buffer?
Limited
What is the function of the episodic buffer?
-Integrates info from all other areas (CE, VSS, PL)
-Deals with episodic (time-sequenced info)
-Sends info to the LTM
What is the capacity of the phonological loop?
Limited
What are the subdivisions of the phonological loop?
-Phonological store- hold words heard
-Artuicualtery processes- holds words seen/heard and silently repeats them ( a kind of maintenance rehearsal)
What type of info does the phonological loop deal with?
-Auditory
-Preserves the order of information
Give a strength of the WMM (KF)
-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
Give a strength of the WMM (Dual task performance)
-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
Give a limitation of the WMM (vague CE)
-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
Give a limitation of the WMM (VSS)
-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
