WMM

Question 1

What are the four stores in the WMM

Answer 1

Central Executive

Episodic Buffer

Visuospatial sketchpad

Phonological Loop

Question 2

What is the function of the central executive?

Answer 2

Directs attention to particular tasks.

Assigns a ‘resource’ (the other three stores) to tasks

Question 3

What is the capacity of the central executive?

Answer 3

Very limited, can’t store data or attend to too many tasks at once.

Question 4

What is the function of the Episodic Buffer?

Answer 4

Acts as general storage for both visual AND acoustic information.

Integrates info from the 3 other stores, and sends information to the LTM

Maintains a sense of time so things can be remembered in chronological order.

Question 5

What is the phonological loop made up of

Answer 5

Articulatory store (inner voice)

Phonological store (inner ear)

Question 6

What is the function of phonological loop?

Answer 6

Deals with auditory information

Preserves the order of info

Articulatory store (inner voice) repeats words that are seen or heard. a.k.a maintenance rehearsal.

Question 7

What is the function of the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 7

Used to plan a spatial task, like getting from one room to another.

visual= what things look like
spatial= the physical relationship between things

Question 8

AO3

Support of central executive from dual task performance

Answer 8

Hitch and Baddely

Task 1 involved only the central executive (given a statement and asked to say true or false, e.g A comes after B)

Task 2 involved either just the articulatory loop (asked to repeat ‘the’ repeatedly) or the articulatory loop AND the central executive (saying random digits)

Task 1 was slower when task 2 involved both the CE and articulatory loop.

Shows that CE is a part of working memory.

Question 9

AO3

Evidence from brain-damaged patients

Answer 9

KF forgot more auditory info in STM than visual info.

Also, his auditory problems were limited to verbal material such as letters and words, but not sounds like the phone ringing.

Brain damage only affected phonological loop

Supports idea of separate visual and spatial systems

Question 10

AO3

Problem with case studies

Answer 10

1. Brain injury is traumatic, which may itself change behaviour, and how a person performs on a certain task.
2. Case studies are unique and cannot be generalised to the population