The working memory model

Question 1

Who came up with the WMM?

Answer 1

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Question 2

What did they believe?

Answer 2

Believed memory is not just one store but a number of different stores

Question 3

What are the 4 parts of the working memory model?

Answer 3

Central executive, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer and phonological loop

Question 4

Describe the central executive

Answer 4

The central executive is an attentional process which monitors incoming data and allocates slave systems.
It has a very limited capacity - data arrives from the senses but it can’t hold it for long.
It involves reasoning and decision making tasks.

Question 5

Describe the phonological loop

Answer 5

Limited capacity.
Deals with auditory information and preserves word order.
Coding is acoustic.
Baddeley further subdivided it into:
- Phonological store (stores the words you hear)
- Articulatory process (allows maintenance rehearsal - capacity is 2 seconds)

Question 6

Describe the visuospatial sketch pad

Answer 6

Visuo and/ or spatial information is stored here.
It has a limited capacity (3/4 objects)
Logie in 1995 suggested subdivision:
- Visual-cache (stored visual data)
- Inner scribe (records the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

Question 7

Describe the episodic buffer

Answer 7

Added in 2000.
Temporary store for information - integrates visual, spatial and verbal information
Limited capacity - about 4 chunks
Maintains time sequencing - recording events (episodes)
Links working memory to LTM

Question 8

Give strengths of the WMM

Answer 8

1. The case of KF - Patient KF (brain damage) had poor STM for verbal information (when someone read the numbers to him) but he could process visual information (read them himself) His phonological loop had been damaged. This suggests there are seperate visual and acoustic stores.
2. Word effects supports phonological loop - Baddeley (1975) found participants had more difficulty doing 2 visual tasks, than doing a visual and verbal task at the same time. Both visual tasks use the same limited resource. Dual task performance activities provide evidence for the existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad. The MSM can’t explain this

Question 9

Give a limitation of the WMM

Answer 9

Lack of clarity of CE - Cognitive psychologists suggest that the CE is unsatisfactory and doesn’t explain anything. They believe the CE should be clearly explained rather than just for “attention”. Some psychologists believe it is many seperate components. This means the WMM hasn’t been explained fully

Question 10

Describe the capacity of the central executive

Answer 10

Very limited capacity

Question 11

Describe the capacity of the phonological loop

Answer 11

Limited capacity - 2 secs worth of information

Question 12

Describe the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 12

Limited capacity - 3/4 objects

Question 13

Describe the capacity of the episodic buffer

Answer 13

Limited - about 4 chunks

Question 14

Describe the coding of the central executive

Answer 14

Modality free (not limited to sight or sound or any one sense since it needs to manipulate all manner of information

Question 15

Describe the coding of the phonological loop

Answer 15

Acoustic

Question 16

Describe the coding of the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 16

Visual

Question 17

Describe the coding of the episodic buffer

Answer 17

Modality free