The working memory model Flashcards
what are the 4 components of the working memory model
central executive
phonological loop
episodic buffer
visou-spatial sketchpad
what is the central executive
a supervisory component of the model as it decides where attention is allocated
TRUE or FALSE: does the central executive have a unlimited capacity
FALSE
who researched the central executive
BADDELEY
what was the aim of baddeley’s experiment into the central executive
to investigate the existence of the central executive
what was the procedure of Baddeley’s experiment into the central executive
asked p.t to think of random digits they typed on to a keyboard, this was either carried out on its own or with one of these tasks:
- reciting alphabet ( easy)
- counting from one
- alternating between letters and numbers (difficult task)
A1 B2 C3..
what were the findings from baddeleys research into central executive
shows the CE has limited resources due to p.t poor performance in more depending tasks
what was the conclusion from baddeleys research into central executive
baddeley said they were competing for the same central executive resources
what is the phonological loop
one of the slave system that deals with -auditory info
-keeping it in the right order
split into 2
what are the 2 stores that make up the phonological loop
the phonological store
the articulatory store
the phonological store holds speech based information for how long?
holds speech based info for 1-2 secs
what is the articulatory store
used to rehearse info from inner ear in a loop, capacity of 2 secs
who researched the phonological loop
baddeley, thompson and buchanan
what was the aim of baddeley’s, thompson and buchanans research into the phonological loop
to investigate the phonological loops function
what was the procedure of baddeleys thompson and buchanans research into the phonological loop
they presented p.t with 5 words and were then asked to recall them after a brief period of time
there was 2 conditions:
monosyballic words
polysyballic words
what were the findings of baddeleys thompson and buchanans research into the phonological loop
avg correct recall was better with short words
what was the conclusion of baddeley’s thompson and buchanans research into the phonological loop
found evidence for the word length effect supporting the phonological loops functions
what is the visou spatial sketchpad
second slave system that hold visual and spatial information which is split into 2. it has a limited capacity of 3-4 items
what is the visou spatial sketchpad split into
th evisual cache
the inner scribe
who researched the visou spatial sketchpad
shepard and feng
what was the aim of sheperds and fengs research into the visou spatial sketchpad
investigate the visou spatial sketchpads function
what was the procedure of shepard and fens research into the visou spatial sketchpad
p.t were shown cube nets and had to either mentally or physically work out if the points touched
what were findings of shepards and fengs research into the visou spatial sketchpad
found a strong correlation between time taken between mental and physical folding
what was the conclusion of shepherds and fengs research into the visou spatial sketchpad
the suggests we use the visou spatial sketchpad to do the folding much similar to real life
a strength of the WMM
P: model has high face validity
E: means the model appears to represent what it claims to
E: the model offer a clear explanation of how we perform a variety of tasks such as mental rotation
L: this is a strength as it shows there are more components of LTM and that memory is an active process of thought
what is a weakness of the WMM
P:the WMM only focuses on STM
E: the WMM provides a detailed description of our STM but no info on the sensory or LTM
E: the WMM isn’t a complete model of memory as the link between the LTM and WM isn’t fully explained
L:this matters because it doesn’t explain how info is passed onto the LTM
a strength of the central executive
P: One strength of the central executive is that it has supporting research.
E: For example, in one experiment by Baddeley, participants found it hard to do a simple and difficult task at the same time (generating a random number sequence and alternating between letters and numbers) but could easily do two simpler tasks (generating random numbers and alphabet).
E: This supports the idea that the central executive has limited resources which it can allocate to tasks.
L: This matters because it makes the idea of the central executive more credible because real-world research supports its ideas.
