Working Memory Model Flashcards
Who developed the Working Memory Model and what does it focus specifically on?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
The workings of short term memory
Why was the working memory model developed when we had the Multi store model theory?
As Atkinson and Shiffrin’s theory was criticised for being “oversimplified” in terms of the STM being a single storage system
What are the three things that the WMM proposed of the STM?
Composed of three limited capacity stores:
Central Executive
Articulatory-Phonological Loop
Visio-Spatial Sketchpad
What is the central Executive?
Manages attention, and controls information from the two other stores
What is the Articulatory-Phonological Loop?
Temporarily retains language-based information consisting off:
Articulately rehearsal process of language including any language presented visually to convert to a phonological state
Phonological store holds auditory information and the order in which it was heard
What is the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad?
Temporarily retains visual and spatial information
What was later added to the Working Memory Model?
The Episodic Buffer
What does the Episodic Buffer do?
Facilitates Communication between the central executive and Long term memory
The three stored STM stemmed from research using a interference task, whereby performance is measured as participants perform two tasks simultaneously The following observations provided evidence to suggest different, limited-capacity STM stores process different types of memory:
If one store is utilised for both tasks, then task performance is poorer than when they are completed separately, due to the store’s limited capacity
If the tasks require different stores, performance would be unaffected when performing them simultaneously
Evaluation Strength
Strengths:
- The WMM provides an explanation for parallel processing (i.e. where processes involved in a cognitive task occur at once), unlike Atkinson and Shiffrin’s MSM.
- A Shallice and Warrington (1974) case study reported that brain-damaged patient KF could recall verbal but not visual information immediately after its presentation, which supports the WMM’s claim that separate short-term stores manage short-term phonological and visual memories.
- The model was developed based on evidence from laboratory experiments, so confounding variables could be carefully controlled to produce reliable results (that can be replicated).
Evaluation Weakness
Despite providing more detail of STM than the multi-store model, the WMM has been criticized for being too simplistic and vague, e.g. it is unclear what the central executive is, or its exact role in attention.
- Results from laboratory experiments researching the WMM will often have low ecological validity (i.e. may not relate to real life), as tasks such as repeating ‘the the the’ are arguably not representative of our everyday activities.
