The Working Memory Model

Question 1

Baddeley & Hitch (1974)

Answer 1

• Picture of STM provided by MSM is too simple - states that limited amounts of info are held for a short time without processing
• WMM - multi-component, not unitary
• Whereas STM can only hold info, WMM can both retain and process info

Question 2

Components of the Working Memory Model

Answer 2

• Central Executive
• Visuo Spatial Sketchpad
• Episodic Buffer
• Phonological Loop
• Long Term Memory

Question 3

Central Executive

Answer 3

• ‘Attentional Process’ that allocates tasks to slave systems by processing info in all Sensory forms
• Involved in reasoning and decision making
• Relates slave systems to LTM & can receive info from LTM
• Determines which info received from senses is/isn’t attended to
• Coding - Modality free, Capacity - Limited

Question 4

Phonological Loop

Answer 4

• Deals with auditory info
• Baddeley (1986): Phonological Store (inner ear) and Articulatory process (inner voice)
• Converts written material into articulatory code - transfers it to PS
• Word repetition - circulates info like a tape loop, making us retain info in Working Mem.
• Coding - Acoustic, Capacity - 2 seconds

Question 5

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

Answer 5

• Inner Eye, deals with visual information
• Logie (1995) - divided VSS into Visual Cache (stores info about items) and Inner Scribe (stores arrangement of objects)
• Coding - Visual, Capacity - 3-4 objects

Question 6

Episodic Buffer

Answer 6

• Original model updated by Baddeley (2000) because he realised WMM needed a general store
• Holds info that is both visual and acoustic
• Maintains sense of time sequencing, main way that info is sent to LTM
• Acts as ‘backup’ store which communicates with LTM and components of WM
• Coding - modality free, Capacity - Limited

Question 7

Supporting Evidence for WMM: Dual Task Performance

Answer 7

• Two visual tasks: you do them worse than if you did them separately
• Visual and auditory task: you can do both equally well
• Proves separate stores
• Doing visual and auditory tasks can also be hard - they require a lot of attention from the central executive, which proves its existence

Question 8

Shallice & Warringfton (1970)

Supporting Evidence for WMM: Case Studies

Answer 8

• KF - short term forgetting of auditory info much greater than with visual info - brain damage limited to PL
• Issues - KF had traumatic brain injury, which could change behaviour so someone performs worse on certain tasks
• Case studies are unique and difficult to generalise

Question 9

Weakness of WMM: Untestable Nature of Central Executive

Answer 9

• Vagueness of CE = can explain any experimental results
• Tasks can’t be performed together = conflicting/exceed capacity of CE
• Tasks can be performed together = not conflicting/don’t exceed capacity of CE
• Circular Argument