The Working Memory Model - Baddeley and Hitch Flashcards
Working Memory Model
- Focuses on the STM store.
- Suggests that the STM store is composed of 3 limited capacity stores:
1) Central Executive
2) Articulatory-phonological loop
3) Visuo-spatial sketchpad - Later addition was the ‘Episodic Buffer’ which facilitates communication between the central executive and long term memory store.
When is the WMM used?
- When you are working on a complex task which requires you to store information as you go along.
- It involves storage and processing.
Central Executive
- An attentional process that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to task
- 2 slave systems:
1) Articulatory-phonological loop
2) Visuo-spatial sketchpad - A very limited processing capacity.
Articulatory-phonological loop
- Processes sound-based information.
- Contains 2 sub-components:
1) Inner voice - rehearses sound information. This helps us to prepare speech and to think in words. For example, when you’re reading and you here a particular voice in your head reading the text.
2) Inner ear - stores sound information. Its focus is on speech perception. If we keep rehearsing the sounds in our head, we can keep it in the phonological store, even the order. - Phonological loop focuses on one thing at a time.
Visuo-spatial sketchpad
- Known as the inner eye.
- Temporarily retains visual and spatial information.
- When you can see an object in your mind’s eye.
- Spatial information relates to the location of those objects in a space. It helps us to know where things are in relation to one another.
Component I Main purpose I Capacity I Coding
1) Central executive I An attentional process that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to task I Limited capacity I Modality free (not limited by any of the 5 senses as it needs to manipulate all manner of information)
2) Articulatory-phonological loop I Processes sound based information I 2 seconds worth of information I Acoustic
3) Visuo-spatial sketchpad I Temporarily retains visual and spatial information I 3-4 objects I Visual
4) Episodic buffer I Facilitates communication between the central executive and long term memory store I Limited capacity I Modality specific (like the central executive)
Link the WMM to the Dual Task Technique
- WMM stemmed from research using a ‘dual task technique’ or interference task whereby performance is measured as participants perform 2 tasks simultaneously.
- If one store is utilised for both tasks, the task performance is poorer than when they are completed separately, due to the store’s limited capacity, eg, repeating ‘the the the’ aloud and reading a text silently would use the articulatory-phonological loop for both tasks, slowing performance
- If the tasks require different stores, performance would be unaffected when performing them simultaneously, eg, repeating ‘the the the’ aloud whilst performing a reasoning task (requiring attention, i.e. the central executive), or whilst following a mobile stimulus with your eyes (using the visuospatial sketchpad)
Strength
point: there is research support for the working memory model.
evidence: Shallice and Warrington investigated the clinical case of KF. It was found that KF had a selective impairment to his verbal short term memory, caused by a brain injury; however the visual functioning of his STM was not affected.
justification: this suggests that the articulatory-phonological loop and visuo-skatial sketchpad subsystems are separate processes located in separate regions of the brain.
implication: this therefore increases the credibility of the working memory model.
Strength
point: there is research support for the capacity of the articulatory-phonological loop.
evidence: Baddeley conducted a study whereby participants were visually shown word lists and then asked to write them down in the same order. One condition had monosyllabic words, such as ‘bond’, ‘yield’, and the second condition had polysyllabic words, such as ‘opportunity’. It was found that the participants could recall more monosyllabic words than polysyllabic words.
justification: this suggests that the capacity of the articulatory-phonological loop is not the number of distinct items, but the time it takes to say the word (approximately 2 seconds worth of information). This is also known as the word length effect.
implication: this is a strength of the working memory model as it correctly identifies the capacity of the articulatory-phonological loop, hence increasing its validity.
Weakness
point: the working memory model has been criticised for its vague and simplistic nature.
evidence: there is a lack of detail on the role of the central executive. This lack of detail may be due to the fact that the central executive is very difficult to operationalise and measure. There may be more than one central component to the central executive but to date, this has not been established with empirical evidence.
justification: this suggests that the working memory model is limited in its explanation of how short term memory works as it doesn’t distinctly elaborate on the functions of certain aspects of the working memory model, the central executive being an example of this.
implication: as a result, this is a weakness of the working memory model.
Weakness
point: research into the working memory model has been criticised for its highly artificial nature.
evidence: evidence supporting this comes from the dual-task performance. Although this technique employs highly controlled lab conditions, it uses tasks that are unrelated to real-life scenarios. Tasks such as repeating ‘the the the’ are arguably not representative of our everyday life.
justification: this element of mundane realism lowers the ecological validity of the idea of the working memory model as it is not generalisable to real-life.
implication: as a result, this is a weakness of the working memory model.
