The Working Memory Model

Question 1

Draw the WMM

Answer 1

Central executive
Visuospatial sketch pad
Episodic buffer
Phonological loop (phonological store and articulatory process)
Long term memory

Question 2

Central executive
1. Main purpose
2. Capacity
3. Coding

Answer 2

1. Control information, allocate subsystems, supervise components and make decisions
2. Limited
3. Free

Question 3

Phonological loop
1. Main purpose
2. Capacity
3. Coding

Answer 3

1. Store words you hear, rehearsing words that are processing keeps them in WMM until needed
2. 2 seconds worth of info
3. Acoustic

Question 4

Visuospatial sketch pad
1. Main purpose
2. Capacity
3. Coding

Answer 4

1. Store visual data, manipulate and arrange images
2. 3-4 objects
3. Visual

Question 5

Episodic buffer
1. Main purpose
2. Capacity
3. Coding

Answer 5

1. Temporarily storing information, maintain a time sequence of events
2. Around 4 chunks
3. Free

Question 6

What is the WMM

Answer 6

This is a model that considers our STM to be a multi-component flexible system which actively processes and manipulates information.
Baddeley and Hitch found that if you did 2 visual tasks at the same time, then you would perform less, but if one was visual and invloved sound there was no interference. This implys that there is more then one store int he STM.

Question 7

Strength evaluation

Answer 7

P- supporting research
E- particpants were given the dual tasks study. This is where they had to complete 2 tasks at the same time(one visual and one verbal), particpants thought they would score poorly. However when they got the results back they were surprised at how well they did, showing that they can focus on 2 things at once due to one task being visual and the other being verbal
E- increases the validity as this research came to the same conclusion of baddeley and hitch.

P- clinical evidence
E- KF was a patient who had an injury results in brain damage. His auditory information in his STM was poor, however he could process visual infomation in his STM just fine.
E- supporting the view that there are different stores in the STM

Question 8

Limitaion evaluation

Answer 8

P- limited understanding for this model
E- the central executive is theoretically the most important part of the WMM, however it’s the part we know the least about, and this is due to researching this is complex.
E- further research need to be done regarding the WMM model.