The Working Memory Model of Memory

Question 1

Who made the working model of memory?

Answer 1

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Question 2

What did Baddeley and Hitch believe?

Answer 2

There was more than one single STM store.

Question 3

What did Baddeley and Hitch believe about STM?

Answer 3

It was an active store holding several pieces of information at once.

Question 4

What can working memory be defined as?

Answer 4

The focus of consciousness. Holding information currently important

Question 5

What does the working memory model suggest generally?

Answer 5

There are 4 stores to STM

Question 6

What is the first store in the STM according to the working memory model?

Answer 6

Central executive

Question 7

What is the central executives role?

Answer 7

Direct attention to particular tasks, determines which store (slave system) needs to process information.

Question 8

What is the central executives capacity?

Answer 8

Very limited as it has to allocate tasks

Question 9

What are the 2 slave systems?

Answer 9

Visuo-spatial sketchpad and phonological loop.

Question 10

What does the visuo-spatial sketchpad do?

Answer 10

Visual information such as what you see and spatial information

Question 11

What are the 2 sub-components in the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 11

Visual cache and inner scribe.

Question 12

What does the visual cache do?

Answer 12

Processes the visual information such as shapes and colours.

Question 13

What does the inner scribe do?

Answer 13

Stores the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

Question 14

What does the phonological loop do?

Answer 14

Processes sound-based information.

Question 15

What are the 2 sub-components that the phonological loop is split into?

Answer 15

Phonological store and articulatory rehearsal loop.

Question 16

What does the phonological store do?

Answer 16

Temporarily holds auditory information.

Question 17

What does the articulatory rehearsal loop do?

Answer 17

Is your inner voice which is a form of maintenance rehearsal.

Question 18

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 18

Where auditory information can be repeated.

Question 19

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 19

An extra storage space for information which can’t be held in the central executive due to its limited capacity.

Question 20

What does the episodic buffer do?

Answer 20

Binds/integrate information form the two slave-systems. Putting information together into a logical and time-relevant order

Question 21

Where can the information also travel from the episodic buffer?

Answer 21

Long-term memory.

Question 22

There is evidence to support that there are separate stores in STM from case studies. What evidence is there to support this claim?

Answer 22

Shallice and Warrington’s case study was of a patient, KF. He’d suffered brain damage and then had poor STM ability for verbal info but could process visual info.

Question 23

There is evidence to support that there are separate stores in STM from case studies. How can this be evaluated?

Answer 23

Suggests his phonological loop has been damaged and other areas of memory intact. Supports the existence of a separate visual and acoustic store.

Question 24

There is supporting research from experiments for the existence of the two slave systems. What evidence is there to support this claim?

Answer 24

Baddeley et al. found that participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks than doing a visual and verbal task at the same time. Both visual tasks compete for same slave system whereas visual and verbal aren’t.

Question 25

There is supporting research from experiments for the existence of the two slave systems. How can this be evaluated?

Answer 25

Suggests there is a separate slave system the visuo-spatial sketchpad that processes visual input as proposed by the working memory model.
Increases validity.

Question 26

There is evidence to support the physical existence of the central executive. What evidence is there to support this claim?

Answer 26

Braver et al. gave their participants a task that involved the central executive whilst in a brain scan.
Found greater activity in prefrontal cortex and it increased as task got harder.

Question 27

There is evidence to support the physical existence of the central executive. How can this be evaluated?

Answer 27

Supports the working model of memory as the demands on the central executive increase, it has to work harder to fulfil its function.
Support the existence.

Question 28

A weakness of the model is that the role of the central executive is unclear. What evidence is there to support this?

Answer 28

Cognitive psychologists suggest that it is unsatisfactory and no explanation. Baddeley himself recognised that the CE is the most important but least understood component.

Question 29

A weakness of the model is that the role of the central executive is unclear. How can this be evaluated?

Answer 29

Cannot fully explain for how STM works and therefore psychologists should be careful when using it to justify their claims. Further research should investigate falsifying claims made of this store.