The Working Memory Model

Question 1

what are the 4 stores of the WMM?

Answer 1

central executive, phonological loop, episodic buffer and visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Question 2

what is the function of the central executive?

Answer 2

• to direct attention to particular tasks, determining at anytime how’s the brains resources (phonological loop, visual-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer) are allocated to tasks.
• has very limited capacity
• data arrives from senses or LTM

Question 3

what is the function of the phonological loop?

Answer 3

• has a limited capacity
• subdivided into phonological store (inner ear) and articulatory process (inner voice).
• deals with auditory info and preserves the order of information

Question 4

what is the function of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 4

• used to plan spatial tasks
• visual and spatial info is temporarily stored here
• has two sub divisions: a visual cache (stores visual info), inner scribe (stores arrangements of objects in the visual field)

Question 5

what is spatial information?

Answer 5

the physical relationship between things

Question 6

what is the function of the episodic buffer?

Answer 6

• an extra storage system with limited capacity .
• integrates info from the CE, PL and the visuo-spatial sketchpad.
• it also maintains a sense of time sequencing + sends info to the LTM.

Question 7

how does dual task performance support the WMM?

Answer 7

Hitch and badly had Pp complete task 1 which occupied the CE and task 2 which involved the articulatory loop or involved both the central executive and articulacy loop. Task 1 was slower when task 2 involved both. This supports the use of the CE in the components of the working memory.

Question 8

what was the case study that supported the WMM?

Answer 8

• KF, short term forgetting of auditory info was greater than visual stimuli. His brain damage restricted to the phonological loop.
• SC, had damage to the phonological loop
• LH, performed better on spatial tasks than visual
• this supports the idea of separate visual and spatial systems.

Question 9

what is the issue with using case studies? (limitation of the WMM)

Answer 9

• The process of brain injury in traumatic which may change the behaviour of the person, making them perform worse on certain tasks.
• The individuals may have other difficulties such as paying attention so underperform of certain tasks.
• Case studies also cannot be generalised.

Question 10

why do some psychologists believe the central executive is too vague?

Answer 10

all the CE seems to do isa locate resources and can be considered the same as ‘paying attention’. Some suggest there are several components, a study of a person named EVR (brain tumour removal) showed he performed well on tests suggesting his CE was intact, however he had poor decision making skills, suggesting the CE is nut fully intact.