the working memory model

Question 1

who proposed the working memory model

Answer 1

baddeley & hitch (1974)

Question 2

what is it an explanation for

Answer 2

how the STM is organised & how it functions

Question 3

what are the 4 main components

Answer 3

• central executive
• phonological loop
• visuo-spatial sketch pad
• episodic buffer

Question 4

describe the central executive

Answer 4

• ‘supervisory’ role
• monitors incoming data
• focuses/divided limited attention
• allocates subsystems to tasks
• very limited processing capacity
• does not store information

Question 5

describe the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 5

• 2nd subsystem
• stores visual and/or spatial information
• limited capacity (baddeley 2003) - 3/4 objects
• robert logie (1995) subdivided it into:
  - visual cache = stores visual data
  - inner scribe = records arrangement of
  objects in visual field

Question 6

describe the episodic buffer

Answer 6

• 3rd subsystem
• added to model (baddeley 2000)
• temporary store for info
• integrates visual, spatial & verbal info processed by other stores
• maintains sense of time sequencing
• storage component of central executive
• limited capacity = 4 chunks (baddeley 2012)
• links working memory to LTM & wider cognitive processes eg. perception

Question 7

AO3 +) research support from clinical studies
-) unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments which may have affected his performance on memory tasks

Answer 7

E:
- Shallice & Elizabeth Warrington’s (1970) case study of KF
- after his brain injury, KF had poor STM ability for auditory info but could process visual info normally (eg. his immediate recall of letters/digits were better when he read them than when they were read too him)
- KF’s phonological loop was damaged but his visuo-spatial sketchpad was intact
T: strongly supports existence of separate visual & acoustic memory stores

HOWEVER: unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments that may have affected his performance on memory tasks
- eg. his injury was caused by a motorcycle accident & the trauma may have affected his cognitive performance
T: this challenges evidence from clinical studies of people with brain injuries that may have affected many different systems

Question 8

AO3 +) studies of dual-task performance support separate existence of visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 8

E:
- when baddeley et al.’s (1975) participants carried out visual & verbal task at same time, their performance on each was similar
- when both tasks were visual/verbal (same subsystem), performance declined substantially

T: shows there must be a separate subsystem that processes visual input (VSS) & verbal (PL)

Question 9

AO3 -) lack of clarity over nature of central executive

Answer 9

E:
- baddeley (2003) recognised this when he stated it was the ‘least understood component’
- the CE needs to be more clearly specified than just ‘attention’ eg. some believe it consists of separate subcomponents

T: CE is an unsatisfactory component which challenges the integrity of the WMM