The Working Memory Model (Baddley 1974)

Question 1

what is the working memory model?

Answer 1

a representation of short term memory, how it is organised and how it functions. the model consists of 4 main components: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer

Question 2

what does the working memory model suggest

Answer 2

there are separate parts of the working memory (stm) and that it is a limited capacity system, only able to deal with a restricted amount of information temporarily.

Question 3

what is the role of the central executive?

Answer 3

• (most important past)
• involved in problem-solving and decision making tasks
• controls attention and decides what part of the WMM should deal with information coming in + has a limited capacity
• it decides which part of working memory should take priority

Question 4

What is the role of the phonological loop?

Answer 4

• three slave systems (one is this) + two sub systems.
• deals with auditory information (so encoding is acoustic)
• preserves the order in which the information arrives

Question 5

What is the role of the phonological store + articulatory control system

Answer 5

PS (inner ear) ACS (inner voice)
- ACS deals with spoken and written material
- spoken words can enter the PS directly but if there are written words they need to be converted to sounds in the ACS
- inner voice rehearses info from the PS by circulating it like a tape loop.

Question 6

What is the role of the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 6

• second slave system
• can temporarily store visual or spatial information when required
• displays and manipulates visual and spatial info help in LTM
• images are retrieved from LTM and pictured on the sketchpad

Question 7

what is the role of the episodic buffer

Answer 7

• links all the pieces of information together from other parts of the working memory
• also binds information from the different parts into chunks or episodes
• e.g recalling information from LTM and integrating into working memory when needed.

Question 8

evaluate the theory of working memory (8)

Answer 8

• it’s supported by the dual task paradigm.
• e.g Baddeley (2003) tested participants’ recall of similar sounding letters (E, G, P, etc) and found they got lower scores than with dissimilar letters (W, X, K, etc).
• If the Phonological Loop is overloaded, that would explain this.
• studies supporting Working Memory lack ecological validity. they are unrealistic.
• Baddeley’s lists of similar sounding words are not an ordinary activity and don’t tell us how memory works in normal situations.
• could apply Working Memory to helping dementia patients by giving them a quiet environment
• so that background noise doesn’t confuse them with dual tasking
• Working Memory is a better model than the Multi Store Model.
• It replaces STM with something more complicated.
• fits in with evidence from brain scans and cases like KF and it was updated in 2000 when Baddeley added the Episodic Buffer.
• Working Memory is the most successful memory model at the moment.
• has been changed and improved over the years but it still fits in with what we know about the brain.
• However, more research needs to be done on the Episodic Buffer which is rather unclear.