Working Memory Model Flashcards
Outline the working memory model (6 marks)
The Working Memory Memory (WMM) was proposed by Baddeley and Hitch and suggested that the STM had several stores which are all connected and work independently. The central executive (CE) is an attentional process that monitors coming data and delegates tasks that need to be completed to the slave systems - it can code any type of information. Any task that requires concentration will overload the CE as it has a limited capacity. One slave system of the WMM is the phonological loop (PL) . Baddeley further divided this into the phonological store which stores the words we hear and the articulately loop which silently repeats the words that are seen or heard. The PL has a limited capacity and codes acoustically. Another slave system is the visuo -spatial sketchpad (VSS) which sets up mental images and is what you must use it you are planning a spatial task, for example giving directions. It temporarily stores visual and spatial information which has a limited capacity of 3 to 4 objects and codes visually. Logie divided the VSS into the visual cache which stores visual data and the inner cache which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field. The final slave system is the Episodic Buffer (EB) which collects and combines information due from the CE, VSS and PL to record an event- the information is then transferred to the long term memory. It has a limited capacity and can code any type of information.
Discuss the working memory model (3 X AO3)
Research to support the WMM was conducted by Shallice and Warrington on patient KF, who suffered with amnesia. They found that KF’s recall in STM for digits was very poor when the digits were read aloud to him, but recall was much better when the digits were visually presented to him. This supports the WMM BECAUSE it suggests that there must be different stores within the STM, one to process visual information (VSS) and one to process auditory information (PL), as the PL was damaged but the VVS intact.
However, critics would argue that the case study to support the WMM is flawed, as it has low population validity. The research was a case study of just one person, patient KF, who has an unusual illness involving damage to the brain. Therefore, it is difficult to generalise the findings to the wider population as their STM may operate differently, thus limiting the support that the research provides for the working memory model of memory.
Studies of dual task performance support the notion that there are separate components within the STM and that they have a limited capacity. For example, Baddeley et al found that participants had more difficulty when performing two visual tasks at the same time than when performing one of the visual tasks alone or one of the visual tasks with a verbal task. This supports the WMM BECAUSE it suggests that both visual tasks are competing for limited capacity of the same slave system (VSS) whereas when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously, they are delegated to separate slave systems (VSS and PL) and performance is not reduced as there is no competition for capacity. Therefore, the credibility of the WMM as a model of memory is increased.
