PSYA1 - MEMORY - Working Memory Model

Question 1

Outline basic process of WMM

Answer 1

info -> Central executive -> One of three slave system (Phonological loop, Visuo-spatial scratchpad or episodic buffer) -> Long term memory

Question 2

What is the central executive(CE)?

Answer 2

Central processor of info directs attention to certain things and is involved in decision making. Very limited capacity and sends info out very quickly. Most important component of the model

Question 3

What is the Visuo-Spatial Scratchpad(VSS)?

Answer 3

-Processes visual and spatial info dealing with movement and action. Limited capacity. Stores info in Visual Cache(Stores info about visual items such as forms and colour) and inner scribe (Stores spatial arrangements and objects in a visual field)

Question 4

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 4

Added episodic buffer in 2999 as the model needed a central store, Is a temporary store for specific information. Is an extra storage unit which integrates info from VSS and PL essentially records events(episodes) and sends info to LTM

Question 5

Name 2 strengths of WMM. (NAME ONLY)

Answer 5

• Dual task performance (Accounts multi tasking)

- Evidence from brain damaged patients

Question 6

Name (NAME ONLY) 2 limitations of WMM

Answer 6

• Central executive is unspecific - Too vague and doesn’t explain anything.
• Evidence from brain damaged patients (process of brain injury is traumatic so may change behaviour of person so they do worse in specific tasks. These individuals may have difficulties in paying attention etc.

Question 7

What is the limitation of the central executive?

Answer 7

Too unspecific, vague and does not explain anything. Critics feel notion of single central executive is wrong an there are probably several components to it.

Question 8

What is the limitation of using evidence from brain damaged people?

Answer 8

• Brain dmg is traumatic and may affect their behaviour such as paying attention

Question 9

What is the strength of dual task performance?

Answer 9

• THE WMM accounts for dual task performance. Baddely and Hitch supported existence of Central executive where task 1 occupied CE (they were given a statement : “Statement B is followed by A’ and then shown two letter such as ‘AB” and asked to say true or false. ) And Task 2 either Involved articulatory loop: say “the the the” repeatedly or central executive and articulatory loop (saying random digits) task 1 was slower when task 2 involved both CE and articulatory loop suggesting dual task affects performance and CE is a component of working memory

Question 10

What is the Phonological loop?

Answer 10

Stores acoustically coded information
- Articulatory loop (Inner voice) deals with speech production
- Phonological Store (Inner ear) store words you hear
Very short capacity of around 2 seconds

Question 11

What is the strength (evidence from brain damage)

Answer 11

SC(patient) had generally good learning abilities but was unable to learn word pairs presented out loud. Suggest damage to phonological loop which suggests that it is a separate component