The working memory model - AO3

Question 1

What are strengths of WMM?

Answer 1

• P: Strength = research support from Kf
• E: Shallice and Warrington (1970): Case study of Kf - had poor STM ability of auditory (sound) information but could proces visual information normally after his brain injury
• E: Immediate recall of letter and digits was better when he read them (visual) then when they were read to him (acoustic)
• L: Supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memort stores as his phonological looop was damaged but his VSS was intact
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• P: Strength = studies of dual task performance support the separate existence of the VSS
• E: Baddeley et al. (1975): PPs carried out visual and verbal task at the same time (dual task). Their performance on each was simialr to when they carried out tasks separately. When both tasks were visual or both verbal, performance declined
• E: Both visual tasks compete for the same subsystem (vss) - no competition when performing a verbal and visual task together
• L: Shows there must be a separate subsystem (VSS) that processes visual input

Question 2

What is a limitations of the WMM?

Answer 2

• P: Limitation = lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive
• E: Baddeley (2003): recognised this as he said “the CE is the most important but the least understood compenent of the working memory
• E: The CE needs to be more clear than just being simply “attention”. Some psychologists believe that the CE may consist of separate sub-components
• L: Means the CE is an unsatisfactory componennt and this challenges the integrity of the WMM

Question 3

What is a PECS paragraph of WMM?

strength

Answer 3

• P: Strength = validity of the model
• E: Dual task studies support the WMM because they show that there must be separate components processing verbal (VSS) and verbal information (PL)
• C: These studies are highly controlled and use tasks that are unlike everyday working memory tasks (e.g recalling random sequences of letters)
• L: Challenges the validity of the model bc it is not certain that working memory operates this way in everyday situations