The Working Memory Model

Question 1

Who created the working memory model?

Answer 1

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Question 2

What aspect does the working memory model address?

Answer 2

Short term memory

Question 3

Is short term memory an active or passive store of memory?

Answer 3

Active

Question 4

What is the central executive?

Answer 4

• Controller of the system, the other 3 components are known as slave systems
• Allows decision making and reasoning
• Limited capacity
• Coding is modality free (depends what info is being processed)

Question 5

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 5

• Also known as the inner voice
• Deals with auditory info and preserves the order that info arrives
• Divided into 2 subsets:
  Phonological store - stores words you hear
  Articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal
• Coding is acoustic
• Capacity is 2 seconds worth of info

Question 6

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 6

• Known as the inner eye
• Process visual and spatial info
• Robert Logi (1995) divided this further:
  Visual cache: stored visual data
  Inner scribe: records arrangement of objects in visual field
• Coding is visual
• Capacity is 3-4 objects (limited)

Question 7

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 7

• Added in 2000 (Baddeley)
• Brings together info from other subsystems into a single memory
• Maintains time sequencing
• Provides bridge between working model and LTM
• Coding is modality free
• Capacity is 3-4 chunks (limited)

Question 8

What is the word length effect?

Answer 8

• Phonological loop holds info that you can say in 1.5-2 seconds
• If the word is any longer, your phonological loop can struggle to remember the words
• Inhibits rehearsal of longer words

Question 9

Research for dual performance tasks - AO3

Answer 9

• Baddeley (1975) asked participants to perform 2 visual tasks: tracking moving lights and describing the letter F
• Found that participants performed better when they weren’t using the same system for processing
• Suggests that phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad exist as 2 separate stores and can be overwhelmed with information

Question 10

Support from clinical case studies - AO3

Answer 10

• Patient KF had selective impairment to his verbal STM, caused by brain injury
• However, it was found that the visual functioning of his STM was not affected
• This supports the WMM by suggesting that the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad exist as 2 separate stores in different areas of the brain

Question 11

Central executive is unsatisfactory - AO3

Answer 11

• It has been argued that the central executive is unsatisfactory and doesn’t explain anything, Baddeley himself has recognised that it is the most important aspect but has the least info
• Eslinger and Damasio (1985) studied a patient with a removed cerebral tumour
• He performed well on reasoning tasks, but poorly on decision making tasks, which is contradictory with the WMM as it claims the central executive can perform both of these tasks
• This suggests that central executive is more complex than originally thought, and more research should be completed