WMM (Baddley and Hitch)

Question 1

WMM

Answer 1

Explanation of how the STM is organised and how it functions.

Question 2

Components

Answer 2

Central Executive. Phonological Loop, Visuo-spatial Sketchpad, Episodic Buffer

Question 3

Central Executive

Answer 3

Attentional process that monitors incoming data. Allocates tasks to the other slave systems. Has a limiting processing capacity

Question 4

Phonological Loop

Answer 4

Processes auditory info and preserves the order in which info arrives. Subdivided into:

1) Phonological store: stores words you hear
2) Articulatory process: allows maintenance rehearsal i.e. keeping them in a loop to keep them in working memory. Capacity of this loop is 2secs.

Question 5

Visuo-spatial Sketchpad

Answer 5

Stores visual and spatial info. Limited capacity. Subdivided into:

1) visual cache: stores visual data
2) inner scrive: records arrangement of objects in visual field.

Question 6

Episodic Buffer

Answer 6

Temp store of info, combining visual, spatial and verbal info processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing. Capacity of 4 chunks. Episodic buffer links working memory to LTM

Question 7

Strength

Answer 7

Dual task performance. Doing 2 visual tasks simultaneously is harder than doing 1 visual and 1 verbal. This is because when doing 2 at the same time they are competing for the same slave system. Showing there are separate slave systems.

Question 8

Strength

Answer 8

Clinical evidence. KF had poor STM ability for verbal info (sounds) but could process visual info (letters). This shows his phonological loop was damaged and others were intact. Supports existence of separate acoustic and visual stores

Question 9

Strength

Answer 9

Braver et al gave people tasks that involved CE while having brain scan. Found greater activity in left prefrontal cortex. Activity increased in this area as task became harder. Makes sense as demands on CE increase, it has to work harder to fulfil its function. Has limited processing capacity, as reflected by the increased brain activation levels

Question 10

Strength

Answer 10

Studies of word length effect support PL. Baddley said people find it hard to remember a list of long than short words: word length effect. Because there is a finite space for rehearsal in articulatory process. Effect disappears if person given an articulatory suppression task: repetitive task that ties up AP: singing la la la while doing task keeps AP busy.

Question 11

Weakness

Answer 11

Lack of clarity over CE. Unsatisfactory and doesn’t explain anything. Needs to be more clearly specified than just being attention. Some think it consists of different components.