The working memory model

Question 1

Who created the WMM?

Answer 1

Baddeley and Hitch (1974).

Question 2

What inspired Baddeley and Hitch to create the WMM?

Answer 2

They believed that the STM store in the MSM was too simplistic and thought it was not a passive store rather several active processes that manipulate information.

Question 3

Which aspect of memory is the WMM focused on?

Answer 3

The Short-Term Memory (STM).

Question 4

What are the four components of the WMM?

Answer 4

• Central executive,
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad,
• Episodic buffer,
• Phonological loop.

Question 5

What are the slave systems in the WMM?

Answer 5

• Visuo-spatial sketchpad,
• Episodic buffer,
• Phonological loop.

Question 6

Which slave system deals with auditory information?

Answer 6

The phonological loop.

Question 7

What are the two divisions of the phonological loop?

Answer 7

• The phonological store,

- The articulatory process.

Question 8

How is information coded in the phonological loop?

Answer 8

Acoustically, (the PL deals with auditory information).

Question 9

What is the central executive?

Answer 9

It is essentially an attention process that monitors incoming data , makes decisions and allocated tasks to each slave system.

Question 10

What is the phonological store?

Answer 10

A division of the phonological loop which stores the words that you hear.

Question 11

What is the capacity of the articulatory process?

Answer 11

It is believed to be two seconds’ worth of what you can say.

Question 12

T/F:

The central executive is a slave system.

Answer 12

False, the three slave systems are;

• Visuo-spatial sketchpad,
• Episodic buffer,
• Phonological loop.

Question 13

What are the two divisions of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 13

• The visual cache,

- The inner scribe.

Question 14

What is the inner scribe?

Answer 14

A division of the visuo-spatial sketchpad which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

Question 15

What is the articulatory process?

Answer 15

A division of the phonological loop which allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds).

Question 16

To which slave system does the inner scribe belong to?

Answer 16

Visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Question 17

Which slave system was originally excluded but added by Baddeley in 2000?

Answer 17

The episodic buffer.

Question 18

Which is the only slave system that cannot be broken down into further sub-systems?

Answer 18

Episodic buffer.

Question 19

What is the role of the episodic buffer?

Answer 19

Integrates visual, spatial and verbal information from other subsystems into a single memory rather than seperate strands.

Question 20

What is the visual cache?

Answer 20

A division of the visuo-spatial sketchpad which stores visual data.

Question 21

To which slave system does the articulatory process belong to?

Answer 21

Phonological loop.

Question 22

Which slave system decides how attention is directed and which tasks are undertaken by which slave-systems?

Answer 22

Central executive.

Question 23

From where does data arrive into the central executive?

Answer 23

From either the senses or from the LTM store.

Question 24

Which component is located in the inner ear (not the ear canal though)?

Answer 24

The phonological store, (a division of the phonological loop).

Question 25

Which component is commonly referred to as the ‘inner voice’?

Answer 25

The articulatory loop.

Question 26

What determines the capacity of the phonological loop?

Answer 26

The time it takes to say the words out loud.

Question 27

Why is it harder to remember polysyllabic words?

Answer 27

Because they take longer to say and the capacity of the phonological loop is only 2 seconds.

Question 28

If you were to imagine your house in your head and rotate it in your brain, what slave-system is being utilised?

Answer 28

The visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Question 29

Which slave-system prepares memories for storage in the LTM?

Answer 29

The episodic buffer.

Question 30

AO3 - Clinical evidence.

Answer 30

Shallice and Warrington’s (1970) study of amnesia patient KF found he had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information normally. This suggests that just his phonological loop had been damaged and other areas were intact still.

Question 31

AO3 - Dual task performance.

Answer 31

Baddeley (1975) showed that participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks than doing a visual and verbal task at the same time. This provides evidence that slave systems are important for different tasks.

Question 32

Which part of the WMM did Shallice and Warrington (1970) conclude that KF had damage to?

Answer 32

Phonological loop.

Question 33

AO3 - Central executive clarity.

Answer 33

Cognitive psychologists suggest that the central executive component is unsatisfactory and doesn’t explain or add anything to the model. The central executive needs to be more clearly specified than just being for ‘attention’.

Question 34

AO3 - Brain scanning.

Answer 34

Braver (1997) gave participants tasks while their brain was being scanned. He found greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex, especially when the task became harder. Supporting the idea that demands on the CE increase and it works harder.

Question 35

AO3 - Studies of word length.

Answer 35

Baddeley (1975) demonstrated that people find it more difficult to remember a list of long words rather than short ones, this suggests that there is only a finite space for rehearsal in the articulatory process (2 seconds).

Question 36

Explain the method of Logie et al (1989).

Answer 36

Participants play a game and at the same time carry out either a visuo-spatial distracter task or verbal memory distracter task.

Question 37

Explain the results of Logie et al (1989).

Answer 37

Visual-spatial distracter task impaired performance of perceptual motor, the verbal memory distractor disrupted performance on verbal elements of hte game.

Question 38

Explain the conclusion of Logie et al (1989).

Answer 38

Demonstrates existence of seperate visuo-spatial and sound based components of the working memory model, also demonstrates the limited capacity of components and can only do a certain amount of processing at a time.