The working model of memory Flashcards
Who came up with the working model of memory?
Baddeley and Hitch
Baddeley and Hitch
Thought there was something wrong with the MSM.
If digit span is really a measure of STM capacity, participants would be expected to show impaired performance on the reasoning tasks because their STM would be fully occupied.
However, participants made few errors on either, though the speed was slower.
They concluded that STM must be made up of several components all of which are involved in the processes other than simple storage.
What are the slave systems?
The visuo-spatial sketchpad.
The episodic buffer.
The phonological loop.
What does the central executive do?
Drives the system.
Decides how attention is directed to particular tasks.
Allocates the resources to tasks.
Data arrives from the senses or LTM.
Has limited storage capacity, so cannot attend to many things at once.
What does the phonological loop do?
Phonological store is the inner ear –> 2 seconds capacity
The articulatory loop is the inner voice and it rehearses information.
What is the word-length effect?
The capacity of the phonological loop is determined by the length of time it takes to say words. If the word is polysyllabic it is harder to remember.
What does the visuo-spatial sketchpad do?
It stores and manipulates information.
It has two sub systems: the visual cache and the inner scribe.
What does the visual cache do?
It stores visual data (things that you see).
What does the inner scribe do?
It records the arrangement of objects in the visual field (where they are).
AO3: KF-motorbike accident
Shallice and Warrington (1970) case study of KF.
KF suffered brain damage and had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information normally.
It suggests that phonological loop has been damaged but everything else is fine.
Supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic stores.
This gives the model internal validity>
However, not reliable as brain damaged patients are unique cases who’ve had traumatic experiences.
AO3: Logie et al (1989)
The existence of 2 systems: verbal and visual.
Both slave systems have limited capacity for the model.
This gives it internal validity.
There were lots of people without brain damage, so it can be generalised and replicated easily.
AO3: WMM better at explaining STM
Breaks it down into systems, more detailed.
The research supports this model more than the unitary store of STM in MSM.
AO3: WMM better at explaining STM
Breaks it down into systems, more detailed.
The research supports this model more than the unitary store of STM in MSM.
AO3: De Jong (2006)
Dyslexia can be explained by the model, specifically in the functioning of the phonological loop.
This gives it external validity: explains learning differences in real-life.
Understanding learning differences means strategies can be devised to help.
Real-life application = external validity.
AO3: don’t fully understand it
Understanding is limited.
Real-life application is limited.
Makes the whole model lack validity.
