Memory: Working Memory Model Flashcards
Who was the WMM created by?
Baddeley and Hitch
Why did Baddeley and Hitch develop the WMM?
to replace STM store of MSM due to criticisms that it was more complex than a unitary store
What are the five main components of the WMM?
Central Executive, Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad, Phonological loop, Episodic Buffer and LTM
What is the role of the Central Executive?
monitors incoming information by prioritising important stimuli, dividing attention and allocating slave systems
What is the role of the Phonological loop?
deals with auditory information and preserves order in which it arrives (slave system)
What two parts are there to the Phonological loop?
Articulatory Control system and Phonological store
What does the Articulatory Control system do?
allows maintenance rehearsal by repeating sounds or words
What does the Phonological store do?
stores words we hear
What is the capacity of the Central Executive?
very limited as it doesn’t store information
What is the role of the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad?
stores visual and/or spatial information when required
What does the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad consist of?
Visual Cache and Inner Scribe
What does the Visual Cache do?
stores visual data
What does the Inner Scribe do?
records arrangement of objects in visual field
What is the capacity of the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad?
limited to 3-4 objects
What is the Episodic Buffer?
a temporary store for information
What is the role of the Episodic Buffer?
maintains sense of time sequencing and incorporates visual,spatial and verbal information together, links to LTM and perception
What is the capacity of the Episodic Buffer?
limited to 4 chunks
Why is the nature of the central executive a limitation to the WMM?
-lack of clarification -Baddeley: ‘most important yet least understood component’
-needs specific definition than simply ‘attention’
-argued that CE may consist of sub components -ambiguity challenges integrity
How is dual task performance a strength to the WMM?
-support separate existence of visuo-spatial sketchpad -Baddeley conducted verbal and visual task -performance on each similar when doing tasks separately -when both were verbal/verbal or visual/visual performance declined -both visual tasks compete for same slave subsystem whereas when different there is no overwhelm of slave systems
-shows separate for processing visual, VSS
Provide a counterpoint for the case study of KF in the WMM
-unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments -this would impact memory performance -injury caused by motorcycle, trauma may have involved other issues
-challenges validity of clinical studies in supporting WMM
