WMM

Question 1

The Working memory model

Answer 1

• Proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
• Multiple components to STM
• Interactive, not sequencial
• STM comprised of a central control system and multiple slave systems, each interacting with the LTM

Question 2

Structure of the WMM

Answer 2

Central executive (CE) 
>
(i) Visuo-spatial scratch pad
(ii) episodic buffer
(iii) phonological loop 

> CE+(i), (ii) and (iii) all interact with the LTM

Question 3

Central executive (CE)

Answer 3

• Involved in problem solving/decision making
• Synthesizes information from the LTM and slave systems
• Prioritizes attention of slave systems to different tasks
• Limited storage capacity

Question 4

Phonological loop (PL)

Answer 4

• Stores speech based auditory information for a brief period
  (i) : Phonological store is the inner ear, allows acoustically coded items to be stored for a brief time
  (ii) : Articulatory control system is the inner voice. It allows subvocal repetition of information stored in the Phonological store (rehearsal) which can be prevented with ‘articulatory suppression’ - giving pps meaningless sound to repeat to fill the Phonological store

Question 5

Visuo-spatial scratch pad (VSS)

Answer 5

• Responsible for storage of spatial/visual information
• Limited capacity
• Independent capacity from PL i.e. one can rehearse digit span and visualize house simultaneously

Question 6

Episodic buffer (EB)

Answer 6

• Integrates information from the subsidary slave systems and the LTM into different chunks, hence ‘episodic’
• Baddeley uses the analogy of an elephant playing ice hockey: Information about Elephants and ice hockey from LTM, visualized in VSS, information combined by EB

Question 7

Baddeley analogy for operation of working memory

Answer 7

Imagine all windows in your house: done with VSS, tally taken by PL, supervised/roles given by CE

Question 8

Strengths of the WMM

Answer 8

Research evidence:

• Baddeley and Hitch (1975) to show multiple components to STM
• Baddeley et al. (1975) evidence for PL
• Baddeley et al (1973) evidence for VSS
• Robbins et al (1996) as evidence for the CE

Influential theory that is still being expanded on today
-Recent addition of the Episodic buffer (EB)

Question 9

Weaknesses of the WMM

Answer 9

-Most important component (CE) is the one understood least, no one has quantified its limited capacity

• Richardson (1984) has suggested that the model is not falsifiable. Eg if articulatory suppression task affects recall, assumed PL is working, but if not CE is said to be working. Hard to prove otherwise/test so not falsifiable
• -> however recent studies have provided more insight into the CE (Robins et al. 1996)