Memory-working Memory Model

Question 1

What is the central executive

Answer 1

the CE is the supervisory components that monitors and controls the 2 slave systems (phonological loop and visuo spatial sketchpad)
it has a limited capacity but can divide and switch attention to allow us to carry out a mental task
its modality free
it cannot attend to too many things at once or store data

Question 2

what is the phonological loop

Answer 2

it is one of the slave systems controlled by the CE
its holds auditory information is a speech based form holding acoustic info such as tone, volume and pitch.
its a loop because it can store and repeat sounds for a limited capacity of 2 seconds

Question 3

what are the two sub-systems of the phonological loop

Answer 3

the phonological store
the articulatory control process

Question 4

what is the phonological store

Answer 4

-stores the words you hear in a speech based form
-spoken words enter directly and are held for a limited capacity of 1.5 to 2 seconds

Question 5

what is the articulatory control process

Answer 5

-rehearses information from the phonological store and allows for maintenance rehearsal
-it circulates information round and round until silently repeating words keeping it in the working memory until it is needed
-written material is converted into articulatory code by the articulatory control process and is then transferred to the phonological store.

Question 6

what is the visuo spatial sketchpad

Answer 6

it is a temporary storage system for visual and spatial information
it processes and stores mental images in terms of what they look like and there place in the visual field
it is used when people are planning a spatial task
it has a limited capacity

Question 7

what are the two components in the VSS

Answer 7

inner scribe
visual cashe

Question 8

what is the role of the inner scribe

Answer 8

deals with manipulation of mental images

Question 9

what is the role of the visual cashe

Answer 9

codes visual information and has a limited capacity of 3-4 items

Question 10

what is the episodic buffer

Answer 10

Baddeley added this store in 2000 and the model needed a general store which bound both visual and sound information to be bound together
it is responsible for integrating and manipulating material in working memory EG-it integrates material from VSS, PL, CE and LTM to meet the requirements of STM
this is how we can imagine events that never occurred the episodic buffer combines different aspects of LTM to create new images
it maintains a sense of time sequencing keeping the order of events
-it has a limited capacity of 4 chunks

Question 11

what was baddely and hitchs experiment

Answer 11

-they conduced a dual task technique where participants had to complete two tasks simultaneously
-in condition 1 participants completed 2 acoustic based tasks (Phonological loop)
-in condition 2 participants had one acoustic task and one visual task (phonological loop) and (visuo-spatial sketchpad)

Question 12

which condition did participants perform better in

Answer 12

condition 2 as they are using separate stores so the stores wont have sensory overload

Question 13

how does this support the WMM

Answer 13

shows there must be separate stores and they are unique in there features

Question 14

evaluation of Baddeley and hitch’s experiment

Answer 14

the study lacks ecological validity as its a controlled lab experiment so is not valid as to how memory is used in the real world. in real life you use your other senses (such as paying attention to body language and lipreading)

Question 15

how does patient KF support the WMM

Answer 15

as he could remember visual images eg-faces but not acoustic information eg-sound
this supports the WMM as there are two components for working memory for visual (visuo spatial sketchpad) and one for acoustic (phonological loop)

Question 16

what did paulescu do

Answer 16

he used a PET scan to record brain activity when participants where performing either verbal or visual tasks and found that different areas of the brain were active during each task

Question 17

what colours show lots of brain activity

Answer 17

red and orange

Question 18

what colours show little brain activity

Answer 18

green and blue

Question 19

how does paulescus brain imaging study support the WMM

Answer 19

as it provides objective and scientific support suggesting that verbal and visual tasks and performed by different areas of brain regions which suggests the phonological loop and visuo spatial sketchpad are physically separate from eachother

Question 20

application of WMM baddely

Answer 20

he said that the phonological loop plays a key role in the development of reading and that the phonological loop is not functioning properly with children with dyslexia. This means that interventions can be put in place to support the development of reading
Even though its less crucial for fluent adult readers. it can help us understand complex text and learn new vocabulary
it also shows that the WMM has explanatory powers as it concepts can be applies to explain abnormal as well as normal memory processes.

Question 21

How did hampson and morris criticize the CE

Answer 21

they said the CE doesnt really explain anything
they said its a hypothetical construct that has no empirical evidence
badedely himself said the CE is the most important but least understood component meaning the WMM hasnt been fully explained

Question 22

what did eslinger and damasio find

Answer 22

they studied EVR who had a cerebral tumor
he performed well on tests that required reasoning but had poor decision making skills

Question 23

what do these findings suggest about the CE

Answer 23

the CE is unsatisfactory as it fails to explain why some elements of the CE are intact whilst other are not
its shows that the CE is not one single component but there mujst be several componenets

Question 24

what does WMM focus on

Answer 24

the WMM only provides a detailed explanation of STM but no information on the sensory register or LTM so its not a complete model on memory

Question 25

what does lieberman point out about the VSS

Answer 25

he said that blind people have excellent spatial awareness despite never having any visual information
he argues that the VSS should be split into two stores one for visual and one for spatial
therefore the WMM is not a complete model of memory

Question 26

what doesn’t the WMM account for

Answer 26

the WMM does not account for musical memory because participants can listen to instrumental music without impairing performance on other acoustic tasks suggesting there are additional sub stores