The WMM:central executive,phonological loop,visuo spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer.Features of the model:coding and capacity Flashcards
Who produced the WMM?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
What part of memory does the WMM mostly focus on?
STM. The WMM is concerned with the ‘mental space’ that is active when, for example, working on an arithmetic problem or playing chess or comprehending language, etc.
Draw the WMM
What is the central executive?
Supervisory role -monitors incoming data, directs attention and allocates subsystems to tasks.It has a very limited storage capacity.
What does the phonological loop(PL) consist of?
PL deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which the information arrives,subdivided into:
-Phonological store: stores the words you hear.
-Articulatory process: allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds to keep them in WM while they are needed).
What does the visuo-spatial sketch pad(VSS) consist of?
Stores visual and spatial information when required, (e.g. recalling how many windows your house has).Logie (1995) subdivided the VSS into:
-Visual cache: stores visual data.
-Inner scribe: records arrangement of objects in visual field
What does episodic buffer do?
It is a temporary store for information.Integrates visual, spatial, and verbal information from other stores.Maintains sense of time sequencing-recording events (episodes) that are happening.It links to LTM.
What clinical evidence supports the WMM?
Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied patient KF who had a brain injury. His STM for auditory information was poor (damaged PL) but he could process visual information normally (intact VSS). This supports the WMM view that there are separate visual and acoustic memory stores.
What’s a limitation of Shallice and Warringtons(1970) clinical study ?
KF may have had other impairments which explained poor memory performance, apart from damage to his PL.This challenges evidence from clinical studies of brain injury.
What dual task performance study supported the VSS?
Baddeley et al.’s (1975)participants struggled to carry out two visual/verbal tasks at the same time than do a verbal and a visual task together.This is because both visual tasks compete for the same subsystem(VSS). There is no competition with a verbal and visual task.There must be a separate subsystem that processes visual input (VSS) and a separate system for verbal processes (PL).
Why can it be argued that the central executive “lacks clarity”?
Baddley (2003) said CE was the most important but least understood component. There must be more to the CE than just being ‘attention’ e.g. it is made up of separate subcomponents.Therefore the CE is an unsatisfactory
component and it challenges the integrity of the WMM.
Why can dual task studies challenge the validity of the WMM?
Dual task studies are highly-controlled and use tasks that are unlike everyday working memory tasks (e.g. recalling random sequences of letters).This challenges validity of the model because it isn’t certain that working memory operates this way everyday
