WMM Flashcards
Central executive
Purpose;
Capacity;
Coding;
Purpose; to receive information from the visuospatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, from perception and from long-term memory and then sift, sort and combine this information until decisions are reached. Reasoning and decision making
Capacity; limited
Coding; modality free (not limited to sight or sound or any sense since it needs to manipulate all manner of information )
Phonological loop
Purpose;
Capacity;
Coding;
Purpose; to hold words and rehearse any words that are currently being considered (by talking to yourself)
Capacity; 2 seconds worth of information
Coding; acoustic
Visuospatial sketchpad
Purpose;
Capacity;
Coding;
Purpose; to hold static images and manipulate them
Capacity; 3-4 objects
Coding; visual
Episodic buffer
Purpose;
Capacity;
Coding;
Purpose; to provide a temporary store for information received by the central executive and maintain a sense of of time frequency, to link LTM to wider cognitive processes such as perception
Capacity; limited- about 4 chunks
Coding; modality free (like central executive)
Strengths of WMM
- there is supporting evidence- KF lost his ability to process verbal information but could still process visual information normally
- Baddeley et al showed how participants struggled to do 2 tasks which are both visual tasks but not if one was visual and one verbal, showing there is a separate slave system for verbal and visual information
Weaknesses of WMM
- it does not really explain much, we know very little about the central executive, when that is the most important part
- the information used is often from brain damaged patients which concerns unique cases with patients who had traumatic experiences
- lacks ecological validity
The visuospatial sketchpad two sub-components
- visual cache- stores visual memory
- inner scribe- stores spatial information in terms of how stimuli is arranged
The phonological loop two components
- phonological store- sometimes called the inner ear as it simply holds the words/sounds we hear
- articulatory control system- also known as inner voice as it repeats the information we have listened to (a form of maintenance rehearsal). This keeps the information in the working memory for as long as we need it. It can hold no more than around 2 seconds worth of information (limited capacity)