Working Memory Model Flashcards
Why the wmw and who
BADDELEY AND HITCH
They believed the msm is too simplisitc- specifically the stm memory store. They believed that stm was not a passive store , but several active processes
What did Baddeley and hitch believe about stm
Not a passive store, but several active processes.
What did Baddeley and hitch discover
- if digit span is really a measure of stm capacity, ppts would be expected to show impaired performance on the reasoning task because their stm would be fully occupied.
- however they found ppts. Made few errors on either.
—> they concluded that the stm must be made of several different components.
The phonological loop
Consists of the phonological store and the articulatory loop
The phonological store
- uses sound based code to store information, but this info decays after about 2 secs, unless it is rehearsed by the articulatory loop
Articulatory loop
Rehearses info verbally and has a time based capacity of roughly 2 secs.
What are the two subsections of the Visio- spatial sketch pad
The visual cache
The inner scribe
The visvo- spatial sketch pad
This stores and manipulates visual info, input is from the eyes, or long term mem.
The visual cache
Stores visual data
The inner scribe
Records the arrangements of objects in the visual field.
The central executive
- drives the system
Decides how attention is directed to particular stores - allocates the resources to tasks.
Data arrives here from the senses or the LTM
Capacity of the central executive
Has limited storage capacity, so cannot attend to all things at once.
The episodic buffer
Takes information from thr other slave systems and adds info about time and order, ready for episodic LTM.
Support the wmm comes from clinical evidence.
Shallice and Warrington
Shallice and Warrington 1970 had a case study of patient KF, who had brain damage.
- after this happened KF, had poor stm ability for verbal info but could process visual info.
Therefore this suggests that the phonological loop had been damaged, whilst other areas of the memory were still intact.
Limitation of Shallice and Warrington
The clinical evidence from brain damaged ppl may not be reliable, as it concerns unique cases, and therefore one person cannot be generalised.
Dual task experiments have been carried out.
Supports the separate existence of the Vss.
Baddeley et al 1975 - he showed that ppts. Had more difficulty doing 2 visual tasks then doing 1 visual and 1 verbal.
- this increased difficulty between the visual tasks is because they are both competing for the same slave system.
The concept of ce is vague
Cog. Psychologists suggest that this component of the wmm is unsatisfactory, and doesnt really explain anything.
- it needs to be more specific than being simply “attention”
—> brings in issues with the validity
—> may consists of separate components, meaning it hasn’t been fully explained
Brain scanning studies have been conducted.
Braver et al (1975) gave their ppts. Tasks that involve the CE whilst they were having a brain scan
- researchers found greater activity in an area known as the left prefrontal cortex.
As the task became harder, the activity in this area increased.
Supports the idea that the wmm as the demands on the ce increase, it has to work harder
- evidence that the stm is an active process.
Logie et al 1989- method
Ppts. Play games and at the same time carry out either a visuospatial distracted task, or a memory distracter task
Logie et al results
Visualspatial task impaired performance on spatial aspects of the game.
Verba memory task disrupted performance on verbal elements of the game
Logie et al conclusion
Demostrarles existence of separate visuospatial and sound based components of the wmm, and their limited capacities.
