The working memory model Flashcards
What is the Working Memory Model?
The Working Memory Model (WMM) is a model for memory when it is in use for solving tasks. It comprises of the Central Executive and its slave systems: the Phonological loop, Visuo-spatial sketch pad, and Episodic Buffer. As well as the LTM.
What is the Central Executive?
The Central Executive directs attention to particular slave systems in order to accomplish tasks.
What is the Phenological loop?
The Phonological loop deals with auditory and articulatory information.
Baddeley (1986) sub-divided this into the phonological store which acts as a store for what you hear. And the articulatory control process works for words through maintenance rehearsal.
What is the Visuo-spatial sketchpad?
The visuo-spatial sketchpad deals with visual and spatial information.
Logie (1995) suggested that the visuo-spatial sketchpad can be divided into a visual cache which acts as a store and inner scribe which works on spatial relations
What is the Episodic buffer?
Baddeley (2000) added the Episodic buffer to his model as a general store for information.
What is the LTMs role?
Retrival from the LTM takes place in all of the slave systems if it can be implemented to solve a task.
What evidence was there for different components in STM?
Hitch and Baddeley (1976) gave participants dual tasks, the first involved just the central executive (verbal reasoning) while the second involved the phonological loop (reciting digit span). However, there accuracy or speed didn’t significantly decrease as numbers increased. This was possible because different stores were in use.
What evidence is there for the Central executive?
Bunge et al (2000) used an fMRI scan and found that the pre-frontal cortex was more active when a dual-task was done. As the Central executive was working harder.
What evidence is there for the Phonological loop?
Baddeley et al (1975) explained the word-length effect (shorter words easier to remember than longer ones). They observed that phonological loop holds the amount of words that you can say in two seconds. However this can be stopped by an articulatory suppression task, were a word must be said again and again as this ties the articulatory process. The articulatory suppression task also adds evidence for the articulatory control process existing.
What evidence is there for visuo-spatial sketchpad?
Badddeley et al (1975) asked participants to track a visual pointer and either describe angles or preform a verbal task. The participants had difficulty doing the two visual tasks as they used one system but they could do the visual and verbal more easily.
What evidence is there for the episodic buffer?
Baddeley et al (1987) found that participants had a better recall for related words . This suggests there is a general store for information that draws from the LTM.
What case studies support WMM?
Shallice and Warrington (1970) study of KF shows that STM works independently of LTM. As well as his short term forgetting seemed to be limited to the verbal information. Indicating only the phonological loop was damaged.
Another study, SC was studied by Trojano and Grossi (1995). They found that he was able to learn most things except spoken word pairs. Suggested phonological loop damage.
LH, who was studied by Farah et al (1998) performed better on Spatial tasks than visual ones. Suggesting separate visual and spatial systems.
