MEMORY ( WMM) Flashcards
Outline the WMM
The WMM is short term memory model that explains how information is organized and processed. The model was developed by Baddeley and hitch in 1974 and has four main components the central executive , the phonological loop , visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer
outline the central executive
The central executive is the controller of the system , managing attention and allocating information to the other components. It has a limited capacity and is modality free , meaning it can process information from any sense
Outline the phonological loop
This component processes auditory information , preserving the order in which it arrives . It’s made up of two parts : the phonological store , which stores words and the articulatory process , which allows maintenance rehearsal
Outline the Visuo-spatial sketchpad
This component stores visual and spatial information. IT’s made up of two parts : the visual cache , which stores visual data , the inner scribe , which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field . It has limited capacity (-3-5 units/’chunks’)
Outline the Episodic buffer
This component was added to the model by Baddeley in 2000. It temporarily stores information , and integrates visual , spatial and verbal information . It also maintains a sense of time sequencing - recording events ( episodes ) that are happening
Outline research that supports the WMM
Evidence from brain damaged patients . Shallice and Warrington studied a man named KF whose short term forgetting of auditory information was greater than visual stimuli. His auditory problems were limited to verbal material such as letters and digits but not meaningful sounds ( such as phone ringing ) . His brain damage seemed to be restriced to the PL .
This supports the idea of separate visual and spatial systems , as suggested by the WMM
Give evidence for the PL & Articulatory process
The fact that people cope better with short words than long words. The PL holds the amount of information you can say in 2 secs , longer words cannot be rehearsed because they don’t fit. However this disappears when someone is asked to repeat shorter words
