the working memory model

Question 1

what is the working memory model?

Answer 1

• created by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) to replace STM due to criticisms
• central executive
• episodic buffer
• phonological loop
• visuospatial sketchpad
• long term memory

Question 2

what did Baddeley and Hitch think about the STM?

Answer 2

• STM must be more complex than just being unitary to pass info to LTM
• must be an active processor
• holding multiple types of info while its being processed

Question 3

what is the central executive?

Answer 3

• controls attention
• receives sense info and filters this before passing it onto sub systems
• limited in capacity
• works on one peice of info at a time
• can use diff sensory inputs

Question 4

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 4

• controlled by central executive
• processes auditory coded info
• primary acoustic store
• articulatory control process
• limited capacity of what can be said in 2 seconds

Question 5

what is the primary acoustic store?

Answer 5

• the inner ear
• holding words recently heard

Question 6

what is the articulatory process?

Answer 6

• the inner voice
• holds info via sub-vocal repetition

Question 7

what is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 7

• processes visual and spatially coded info
• ‘inner eye’
• controlled by central executive

Question 8

what is the inner scribe?

Answer 8

• active store holding the relationships between objects in 3D space

Question 9

what is the visual cache?

Answer 9

• a passive store of form and colour

Question 10

Evaluative research: Baddeley (1975)

Answer 10

• asked to do 2 visual tasks or a visual and verbal task
• performance was better w visual and verbal task= not using same processing
• VSS and PL= separate stores
• capacity of VSS can be overwhelmed w visual info

Question 11

what is the episodic buffer?

Answer 11

• added by Baddeley in 2000
• model needed a general store to hold and integrate info from the: VSS, PL, CE and LTM

Question 12

Evaluative research: Shallice and Warrington (1970) patient KF

Answer 12

• selective impairment to verbal STM bc of brain injury
• visual functioning of STM= not affected
• PL and VSS are separate brain systems in diff locations

Question 13

Evaluative research: brain imaging fMRI scans

Answer 13

• used these while asking pp to complete tasks w same amounts of spatial and verbal info
• 1= separate info
• 2= integrated
• integrated info=more activation in prefrontal cortex
• separate= more activation in posterior brain regions
• EB exists and is in prefrontal cortex

Question 14

Evaluations: limitations, central executive= vague

Answer 14

• doesn’t have a full explanation of its function
• not fully open to testing
• Baddeley admits it needs more development= inclusion of episodic buffer

Question 15

Evaluations: strengths, more accurate in describing STM

Answer 15

• MSM= STM as passive info store
• WMW= active memory processor
• now refer to STM as WMM bc more detail+ accuracy

Question 16

Evaluations: limitations, lab based studies

Answer 16

• highly controlled= strong internal validity
• issues w/ external validity
• most studies lack mundane realism
• not generalisable to everyday life

Question 17

Evaluations: limitations, inferences made aren’t always correct

Answer 17

• impossible to directly observe the processes of memory
• inferences made= assumptions abt cognitive processes
• assumptions could be incorrect