The working memory model Flashcards
Why was the MSM criticised?
For describing memory as linear with unitary stores
–> presented a very simplistic view of memory
What did the WMM suggest?
suggested STM has different components and so is an explanation of how short
term memory is an active processor, how it is
organised and how it functions.
What are the 4 main components of the WMM?
Central Executive, Phonological Loop, Visuospatial Sketchpad and Episodic Buffer
What is the central executive?
The central executive (CE) is a supervisory component i.e. has overall control.
It is modality free - it processes all different types of information from any sense
What is the central executive responsible for?
responsible for a range of important control processes; monitoring incoming information, making
decisions, retrieving information from LTM and allocating slave systems to tasks.
Describe the capacity of the central executive
It has limited capacity and does not store much information
What is the phonological loop?
a slave system.
Describe the capacity of the PL
it has limited capacity
How is information coded in the PL?
Acoustically - it deals with auditory information
What are the 2 subdivisions of the PL?
The phonological store and the articulatory process
Describe the Phonological store
The Phonological Store is a temporary storage system for holding auditory information. It is Concerned with speech perception (sounds of items) and has limited capacity
Describe the Articulatory process
The Articulatory Process focusses on words maintained by vocal repetition. It is concerned with speech production. It has limited capacity and is a temporary storage system.
What is the Visuospatial sketchpad?
Another slave system. It stores visual and/or spatial information when required. Visual/spatial information i temporarily stored here.
What is visual information?
What things look like
What is spatial information?
The physical relationship between things
What is the capacity of the VSS?
3 or 4 items
What is the VSS composed of?
Visual cache
Inner scribe
What is the visual cache?
Stores visual data
What is the inner scribe?
records the arrangement of objects in the visual field (spatial)
What is the Episodic Buffer?
The third slave system added by Baddeley. The EB is a
temporary store for information which integrates the visual, spatial and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing – basically recording events that are happening.
The EB links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception.
Why did Baddeley add the Episodic Buffer?
because he realised that the model needed a general store. The PL and VSS deal with processing and temporary storage of specific kinds of information. The CE has no storage capacity, so there was nowhere to hold information.
What is the capacity of the EB?
4 items
Who talks about dual task performance?
Baddeley
What did Baddeley’s study show?
When both tasks were verbal (or both visual) performance on both declined. However when one task was verbal and the other was visual, performance was better. This is because there is no competition when performing a verbal and visual task together whereas visual tasks compete for the same slave sub-system (VSS)
