The Working Memory Model

Question 1

Who proposed the Working Memory Model?

Answer 1

Baddeley & Hitch

Question 2

Outline the Working Memory Model.

Answer 2

(All 3 below connect to the CE) Central Executive
Visuospatial Episodic Phonological
Sketch Pad. Buffer Loop
(All 3 above connect to the LTM) LTM

Question 3

Outline Baddeley & Hitch’s beliefs regarding the WMM.

Answer 3

• Believed that STM is a number of different stores for different types of information.
• Believed STM was not a unitary store.
• Believed LTM was a passive store that holds previously learned material for use by the STM when needed.

Question 4

What is the Central Executive?

Answer 4

• Limited Capacity: Data arrives from the senses but cannot hold it for long.
• Determines how resources/sub-systems are allocated.
• Involves reasoning and decision-making tasks.
• Decides what information is important and where it should go.
• Can only do a limited number of things at the same time.
• Collects info from different sources.

Question 5

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 5

• Sub-system
• Limited Capacity
• Deals with auditory information and preserves word order in the inner ear.
  Further subdivided into:
• Phonological store - holds the words heard
• Articulatory control system - form of maintenance rehearsal, holds words heard or seen and silently repeats them like an inner voice

Question 6

What is the Visuo-spatial sketch pad?

Answer 6

• Sub-system
• Visual (what things look like) and/or spatial (physical relationships between things) stored here.
• Inner eye almost.
• Limited capacity: 3-4 objects

Logie (1995) suggested subdivision:
- Visuo-cache which stores information about visual items.
- Inner scribe for spatial relations - stores the arrangement of items in the visual field.

Question 7

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 7

• Sub-system
• More general store for information received from the central executive as it has no storage capacity.
• Limited capacity of 4 chunks.
• Integrates information from all other areas.
• Sends information to the LTM.

Question 8

Outline the strengths of the WMM.

Answer 8

P - Research support for the WMM.
E - Hitch and Baddeley (1976) - dual task experiment - when using the same component, participants’ performance was slower.

P - Further research support from case studies.
E - KF had brain damage - resulted in difficulty recalling auditory information but not visual.
E - supports that these are separate stories as one can be damaged but the other intact.

Question 9

Outline the Baddeley & Hitch experiment. (1976)

Answer 9

Task 1 was a true or false task which occupied the Central Executive. - Verbal reasoning.

Then asked to perform this at the same time as a task involving the articulately loop (saying the the the)
OR
Asked to say random digits - which occupies both the Central Executive and Articulatory Loop.

Question 10

Outline the limitations for the WMM.

Answer 10

KF peel:
P - However, evidence from case studies cannot be generalised.
E - KF suffered from brain damage, which would have affected his behaviour and brain functions. This was a unique case.
E - How much we can generalise is limited as they are not representative.

P - Explanation of the central executive is limited
E - EVR patient with a brain tumour. Able to perform well in reasoning tests but struggled to make even simple decisions.
E - WMM suggests that reasoning and decision-making skills are performed by the central executive, but this evidence suggests that the central executive should be split into further sub-components.