Working Memory Model

Question 1

What is the central executive

Answer 1

Capacity to focus, divide and switch attention between tasks
Modality free encodes through all senses
Responsible for decision making

Question 2

What is the phonological loop

Answer 2

The auditory short term memory, holds the phonological store and the articulatory process that holds sound and information

Question 3

What is the visuo spatial sketchpad

Answer 3

visual short term memory

ability to manipulate into 2d and 3d

Question 4

What is the episodic buffer

Answer 4

Combines information from all stores, as well as retrieving from LTM

Question 5

What is a strength of the WMM

Answer 5

Credible
Case study of KF provides evidence of separate stores
Digit span of 1 and damaged phonological loop, however visual memory was still intact

Question 6

What is a strength of the WMM

Answer 6

Useful for education
Students cannot revise effectively listening to music and revising as it utilises the same store and won’t work effectively

Question 7

What is a weakness of the WMM

Answer 7

Reductionist
Ignores Biological Factors
Henry Molaison damaged his hippocampus which damaged memory proving that biology is an important role
Theory does not mention this

Question 8

What is a weakness of WMM

Answer 8

Mainly supported by lab experiments
Lacks ecological validity
E.g. Baddeleys study with a number task and VR task
No one would do this in real life