Memory : Working Memory Model

Question 1

What’s working memory?

Answer 1

A limited capacity store for retaining info for a brief period while performing mental operations on that info

Question 2

Baddeley + Hitch on the Working Memory Model

Answer 2

Baddeley and Hitch thought the STM wasn’t a unitary store (like MSM states) and argues it was an active processor of info (not passive like MSM states)

Question 3

WMM model

Answer 3

. Central executive
⇙ ⇕ ⇘
Phonological loop ⇔ Episodic buffer ⇔ Visual spatial sketchpad
Articulatory system ⇕ Visual cache
Phonological store Long term memory Inner scribe

Question 4

Advantages of the working memory model

Answer 4

• the WMM is supported by clinical evidence of case studies of patients suffering from brain damage (KF case study)
• there’s empirical evidence from dual task performance studies

Question 5

Disadvantages of the working memory model

Answer 5

• critics (including Baddeley) have suggested that the CE is too vague and doesn’t really explain anything

Question 6

What’s the central executive?

Answer 6

The CE has a supervisory role, doesn’t store info and has very limited processing capacity
Functions:
- directs attention to tasks + makes decisions
- allocates tasks to slave-systems (sub components)
- data arrives from the senses or LTM

Question 7

What’s the phonological loop?

Answer 7

Processes auditory info, codes ANY info acoustically and has a limited capacity of 2 secs worth of info. Baddeley (1986) further subdivided it into:
- phonological store: holds words heard/ phonological info
- articulatory control process: inner voice (maintenance rehearsal)

Question 8

What’s the visual spatial sketchpad?

Answer 8

Processes visual and/ or spatial info and has a limited capacity of 3-4 items. Visual refers to what things look like and spatial refers to relationships between things. ANY info coded visually. Logie (1995) suggested the subdivision of :
- visual cache: stores info about visual items (form + colour)
- inner scribe: store arrangement of objects for spatial relations

Question 9

What’s the episodic buffer?

Answer 9

A temporary store which integrates info from other slave-systems, has a limited capacity of approx. 4 chunks, it maintains a a sense of time sequencing (recording events currently happening) and sends info to LTM. Baddeley (2000) later added EB as he realised his model needed a more general store as the slave systems deal with specific types of info and the central executive has no storage capacity
Episodic memory → memory of episodes

Question 10

Whats the word length effect?

Answer 10

Immediate memory span is better with short vs long words → short words can be articulated faster, so more words can be silently articulated before they decay (Baddeley et al. 1975)

Question 11

Whats the dual task technique?

Answer 11

Where performance is measures as Ps perform 2 tasks simultaneously

Question 12

Whats the primacy effect?

Answer 12

Remembering the first words heard → overload phonological loop

Question 13

Whats the recency effect?

Answer 13

Remember the last words → overload word length effect

Question 14

Baddeley and Hitch : Aim

Answer 14

To investigate is Ps can use different parts of working memory at the same time

Question 15

Baddeley and Hitch : Method

Answer 15

Ps asked to perform two tasks simultaneously (dual task technique) - a digital scan task that required them to repeat a list of numbers and a verbal reasoning task which required them to answer true or false questions

Question 16

Baddeley and Hitch : Findings

Answer 16

As the number of digits increased in the digit span tasks, Ps took longer to answer the reasoning questions (only a fraction of a second). Ps didn’t make anymore errors in the verbal reasoning tasks as the number of digits increased

Question 17

Baddeley and Hitch : Conclusion

Answer 17

The verbal reasoning task made use of the central executive and digit span task mad use of the phonological loop - if one store is utilised for both tasks then performance is lower due to the stores limited capacity, if the tasks are using the same parts of the same component processing will slow down

Question 18

Baddeley and Hitch : Advantages

Answer 18

• Baddeley + Hitch (1976) showed Ps had more difficulty doing tasks requiring the phonological loop, but when one used PL and the over VSS their performance was fine → shows evidence there are mjultip0le different components within STM
• brain scan evidence (Braver, 1997) supports existence on CE, where Ps were given tasks involving the CE and activity was seen in the prefrontal cortex and it became more active the harder the task became (further research needed)

Question 19

Baddeley and Hitch : Disadvantages

Answer 19

• lab study so lacks mundane realism and cannot always be generalised to a real world situation
• Baddeley said CE is too vague and doesn’t really explain anything → more research is needed to provide evidence of its role (lack of clarity + validity)

Question 20

KF case study

Answer 20

KF suffered from brain damage after a motorbike accident and he had issues with his STM → he was unable to recall verbal/ acoustic info but could still process visuals (e.g faces), suggesting his phonological loop was damaged but his VSS was still intact

Question 21

KF case study : Advantages

Answer 21

• supports the ideas that there are separate stores first visual, spatial and acoustic processing within STM (increased validity)

Question 22

KF case study : Disadvantages

Answer 22

• evidence from the case studies is unique as they’re a patient with brain damage and have experienced trauma (also unknown how the patients would’ve completed tasks before their injury) so findings cannot always be generalised