Working memory model

Question 1

Who created the working memory model?

Answer 1

Baddely and Hitch 1974

Question 2

Why was the working memory model created?

Answer 2

• if you perform two visual tasks at the same time (dual performance) you are more likely to perform them better separately than together
• if you perform two tasks - one auditory and one visual you are likely to perform them together and both separately because there is no interference
• This means that you would need one store for processing visual information and other for auditory information
• Baddely and Hitch believed that STM had multiple stores

Question 3

what is the central executive?

Answer 3

It directs attention to particular tasks
it allocates the brains resources to particular tasks to the three slave systems
it has a limited capacity and cannot perform multiple things at the same time
it also has no capacity for storing data
it gets data from the senses and LTM

Question 4

what is the phonological loop?

Answer 4

It is involved in auditory processing and it helps preserve the order of information
Baddely in 1986 divided this into two further categories
- the phonological loop which stores the words you hear like an inner ear
- the articulatory process which stores the words you hear or see and silently repeats them like an inner voice which is a form of maintenance rehearsal

Question 5

what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 5

It is involved with spatial tasks for example getting to one room to the other and counting how many windows are in your house
It is involved with visual tasks as well
spatial refers to the physical relationship between things
Visual tasks refer to things you see
Loggie in 1995 divided this into two further categories
the visual cache which is involved in processing visual items such as colour and form
the inner scribe which is involved in the arrangement of objects in a visual field

Question 6

what is the episodic buffer?

Answer 6

The phonological store and the visual-spatial sketchpad are involved in processing and the kinds of memory stored there
the central executive has no capacity for storing data
Baddely in 2000 realised that he needed a store that was general and thus created the episodic buffer
It integrates information from the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad
It also acts as a sense of time sequencing processing events (episodes)
it gets its information from LTM