The Working Memory Model

Question 1

What did Baddeley & Hitch (1974) argue about the LTM

Answer 1

They thought it was a passive store that only holds previously learned material to be used by STM when needed

Question 2

What are the 4 components of the working memory model?

Answer 2

-> the central executive
-> the phonological loop
- the visuo-spatial sketchpad
-> (the episodic buffer, added 2000).

Question 3

What’s the phonological loop

Answer 3

• composed of the phonological store & articulatory loop:
  The phonological loop is the component of working memory that deals with spoken and written material

Question 4

What is the phonological store

Answer 4

-> sometimes referred to as the ‘inner ear’
Linked to speech perception & holds information in speech based form (e.g. spoken words) for 1-2 seconds.

Question 5

What is the articulatory loop

Answer 5

-> referred to as the inner voice
- linked to speech production and is used to rehearse and store verbal information from the phonological store, allowing maintenance rehearsal to occur

Question 6

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 6

• it stores and processes information in a visual or spatial form, used for navigation.
  -> sometimes referred to as the inner eye

Question 7

What are the 2 sub components of the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 7

• visual cache
• inner scribe

Question 8

What does the visual cache store material about

Answer 8

Visual material about form and colour

Question 9

What does the inner scribe do

Answer 9

Handle spatial relationships

Question 10

What does the central executive do?

Answer 10

It drives the whole working memory system and allocates data to other components (slave systems)
-> it also deals with cognitive tasks (e.g reasoning, problem solving)

Question 11

Individuals have a […] attentional capacity

Answer 11

Limited

Question 12

Why are tasks automated

Answer 12

To make less attentional demands on the central executive, and leave us free to perform other tasks.

Question 13

Why did Baddeley add the episodic buffer in 2000?

Answer 13

-> to show that there is a general storage:
This is as slave systems only deal with processing and temporary storage of specific information, while the central executive has no storage capacity.

Question 14

What is the episodic buffer

Answer 14

The episodic buffer is a limited capacity store, integrating information from the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad, as well as from LTM.

Question 15

Pros of the WMM

Answer 15

• supported by neurobiological evidence (Shallice and Warrington - 1970)
• supported by lab experiments (Baddeley et al 1975)
• practical application

Question 16

How does the WMM have practical application

Answer 16

-> it has improved understanding of how people learn to read, and so has helped psychologists to assist those with dyslexia who can struggle with reading

Question 17

What was Shallice & Warrington (1970) & their findings

Answer 17

-> KF case study: man who (bc of a motorbike accident = poor STM) for words that were presented verbally but not for words presented visually.
-> supports WMM idea that there is more than one type of STM.
-> In particular, shows that we have a type of STM for verbal tasks (phonological loop) and another for visual (visuo-spatial sketchpad)

Question 18

What was Baddeley et al (1975)

Answer 18

• they gave participants brief visual presentations of lists of words, made up of either short or long words:
  -> participants then asked to recall the list in the correct order

Question 19

What were the results of Baddeley et al (1975)

Answer 19

-> participants recalled more short than long words (known as the word length effect)
-> supports idea that the phonological loop can hold as many items as can be said in 1.5 to 2 seconds rather than being limited by 7 (+/- 2) items like the MSM argues

Question 20

Criticism of the WMM

Answer 20

• several psychologists think the idea of a central executive is vague and untestable, criticising the WMM for not being detailed enough
• one example is Damasio (1985)

Question 21

What did Damasio do (1985)

Answer 21

-> presented the case of EVR who had a cerebral tumour removed. He had good reasoning skills, (suggesting his central executive was intact) but couldn’t make decisions, (suggesting his central executive was damaged).
-> this case study suggests that the central executive is more complicated than the WMM claims.

Question 22

AO1 - Why was the WMM introduced

Answer 22

Due to the dual task effect, as they believed the STM wasn’t a unitary store