The working memory model Flashcards
What are the 4 parts of the working memory model?
Central executive, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer and phonological loop
What is the working memory model an explanation of?
How one aspect of memory (short-term memory) is organised and how it functions
What part of the mind is the working memory model concerned with?
The part of the mind that is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating information
What is the central executive?
The central executive is essentially an attentional process that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to tasks. It has a very limited processing capacity
What is research for the central executive?
- Bunge et al investigated if the central executive exists by performing 2 tasks simultaneously compared with one after the other
- Used FMRI to see which parts of the brain is most active when participants are in different conditions
- Found that when there is more brain activity so increased demand for attention
What is the phonological loop?
It deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which the information arrives
What are the 2 components the phonological loop is divided into?
The phonological store and the articulatory process
What is the phonological store?
It stores the words you hear
What is the articulatory process?
Allows maintenance rehearsal
What is maintenance rehearsal?
Repeating sounds or words in a ‘loop’ to keep them in working memory whole they are needed. The capacity of this ‘loop’ is believed to be 2 seconds’ worth of what you can say
What is research for the phonological loop?
Baddeley et al demonstrated that people find it more difficult to remember a list of long words rather than short words. This is called the word length effect. This is because there is a finite space for rehearsal in the articulatory process.
When does the word length effect disappear?
If a person is given an articulatory suppression task - this is a repetitive task that ties up the articulatory process
What is the visuospatial sketchpad?
Stores visual and/or spatial information when required. Has a limited capacity, which according to Baddeley is about 3 or 4 objects
What are the 2 components Logie subdivided the visuospatial sketchpad into?
The visual cache and the inner scribe
What is the visual cache?
Stores visual data
What is the inner scribe?
Which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field
What is research for the visuospatial sketchpad?
Baddeley et al showed that participants had more difficulty doing 2 visual tasks (tracking a light and describing the letter F) than doing both a visual and verbal task at the same time. This increased difficulty is because both visual tasks compete for the same slave system whereas, when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously, there is no competition
What is the episodic buffer?
A temporary store for information, integrating the visual, spatial, and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing. It can be seen as the storage component of the central executive and has a limited capacity of about four chunks (Baddeley 2012)
What is time sequencing?
Recording events (episodes) that are happening in the order they happen
What does the episodic link working memory to?
LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception
What is research for the episodic buffer?
Patients with impaired LTM but STM of 25+ capacity - meaning they are separate
What are 3 evaluation points for the working memory model?
Clinical evidence
Dual task performance
Lack of clarity over the central executive
