Memory: working memory model

Question 1

What does the working memory model consist of?

Answer 1

-central executive
-visuospatial sketchpad
-phonological loop
-episodic buffer
-long term memory

Question 2

What is the central executive?

Answer 2

-receives environmental stimuli and passes it to appropriate store

Question 3

What is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 3

-processes visual and spatial information
-holds an image in the mind

Question 4

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 4

-processes sound information
-repeats it several times and sends it on

Question 5

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 5

-general store
-combines information

Question 6

What is a strength to the model?

Answer 6

-shows evidence for separate stores:
.Clive wearing could form new stm but not ltm
.KF had a motorbike accident and had limited capacity for verbal information but not visual

Question 7

What are the limitations to the model?

Answer 7

-doesn’t capture evidence for more stores:
.HM could make new procedural ltm but not semantic or episodic
-reductionist:
.doesn’t acknowledge human memory is much more complex