The Working Memory Model

Question 1

Who proposed the working memory model

Answer 1

Baddeley and Hitch 1974

Question 2

What does the WMM focus on

Answer 2

The STM

Question 3

Key components of the WMM

Answer 3

-The central executive
-The phonological loop
-The visuospatial sketchpad
-The episodic buffer

Question 4

What is the function of the central executive

Answer 4

-The ‘boss’

-Processes info from all sensory modalities
-Directs attention and decides which tasks are handled by the phonological loop ], visuospatial sketchpad or episodic buffer.

Question 5

Capacity of the central executive

Answer 5

Very limited. Can only focus on one task at a time effectively

Question 6

Example of the central executive working

Answer 6

Solving a maths problem while ignoring distractions

Question 7

Function of the phonological loop

Answer 7

-Handles all auditory and verbal information

Question 8

What two components is the phonological loop divided into

Answer 8

-The phonological store
-The articulatory process

Question 9

Function of the phonological store

Answer 9

-The ‘inner ear’ which holds spoken words for a brief time

Question 10

Function of the articulatory process

Answer 10

The ‘inner voice’ which rehearses words silently to prevent decay

Question 11

Capacity of the phonological loop

Answer 11

-Limited to around 2 seconds of speech based information

Question 12

Example of the phonological loop

Answer 12

Remembering a phone number and repeating it silently

Question 13

Function of the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 13

-recesses all visual and spatial information

Question 14

Two components of the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 14

-The visual cache
-The Inner scribe

Question 15

Function of the visual ache

Answer 15

-Stores visual,such as shapes and colours

Question 16

Function of the inner scribe

Answer 16

-Processes spatial relationships and movement such as navigating a map

Question 17

Capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 17

-Limited but can handle simple visual or spatial tasks

Question 18

Example of the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 18

-Visualising the route to a friends house

Question 19

When was the episodic buffer added to the WMM

Answer 19

2000

Question 20

Function of the episodic buffer

Answer 20

-Integrates information from the PL, VS, and LTM to create a coherent episode

Question 21

Capacity of the episodic buffer

Answer 21

-Limited to about 4 chunks of information

Question 22

Example of the episodic Buffer

Answer 22

-Combining verbs descriptions and visual layouts to imagine a new city