Working Memory Model

Question 1

Who created the WMM?

Answer 1

Baddley and Hitch

Question 2

What did Baddley and Hitch’s working memory model replace the idea of?

Answer 2

Replaced the idea of a unitary Short-term memory.

Question 3

What did Baddley and Hitch believe about the WMM?

Answer 3

That the STM is more active and complex than the Multi-Store Model has suggested.

Question 4

What does the WMM consist of?

Answer 4

• THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE
• THE PHONOLOGICAL LOOP
• THE VISUO-SPATIAL SKETCHPAD
• EPISODIC BUFFER.

Question 5

What is the CENTRAL EXECUTIVE?

Answer 5

• It is the main part of the WMM
• ‘Controls’ the other ‘slave’ components
• Decides which component is required for the task.

Question 6

What does the CENTRAL EXECUTIVE do?

Answer 6

• It decides what the working memory pays attention to
• It is involved in higher mental processes such as DECISION MAKING and REASONING
• It can process information from different senses as each is coded differently.
• It can handle more than one task at once
• It allocates ATTENTIONAL DEMANDS to the ‘slave’ components by deciding which task is most important and should be handled first.

Question 7

What is the PHONOLOGICAL LOOP?

Answer 7

• It codes information ACOUSTICALLY (noises + words)
• Has two parts: SPEECH PERCEPTION and SPEECH PRODUCTION

Question 8

What is the PRIMARY ACOUSTIC STORE? (PAS)

Answer 8

• Linked to SPEECH PERCEPTION and UNDERSTANDING
• It is a SHORT TERM STORE that receives ACOUSTIC information and holds info for 1-2 seconds
• It remembers sounds in the same order that they were received in.

Question 9

How long does the Primary Acoustic Store hold information for?

Answer 9

Holds the information for approximately 1-2 seconds

Question 10

What is the Articulatory Process? (AP)

Answer 10

• Linked to speech PRODUCTION
• Used to VOCALLY REHEARSE and STORE sounds collected by the Primary Acoustic Store
• Information from the Primary Acoustic Store is REPEATED in a LOOP to PREVENT DECAY

Question 11

What is the capacity of the Articulatory Process?

Answer 11

The capacity is 2 seconds of speech

Question 12

What is the Visual spatial sketchpad? (VSSP)

Answer 12

• VISUAL RELATED; shape, form, colour
• Codes and rehearse information through visualising mental images
• Has a limited capacity of 3-4 objects

Question 13

What is the capacity of the Visual Spatial SKETCHPAD?

Answer 13

Has a limited capacity of 3-4 objects

Question 14

What did Logie (1995) subdivide the Visual spatial sketchpad into:

Answer 14

The VISUAL CACHE and the INNER SCRIBE

Question 15

What does the VISUAL CACHE do?

Answer 15

Stores passive VISUAL information about FORM and COLOUR

Question 16

What is the INNER SCRIBE?

Answer 16

It is your own SPATIAL AWARENESS. (e.g, follows a mental map)

• Also rehearses and transfers information into the visual cache to the central executive (e.g navigation from the bedroom to the kitchen)

Question 17

What does the EPISODIC BUFFER do?

Answer 17

• Takes information from the Visual spatial sketchpad and phonological loop and integrates them together
• It processes tasks that require both slave systems (e.g following directions rom a satnav)

Question 18

What does the EPISODIC BUFFER have?

Answer 18

• It has a TEMPORAL STORAGE SYSTEM
• Has links to long term memory - in case this information is needed by the working memory, there is a two way communication system with the LTM

Question 19

What is the capacity of the Episodic Buffer?

Answer 19

It has a LIMITED CAPACITY of 4 CHUNKS of information

Question 20

Which psychologist performed dual task studies?

Answer 20

Baddeley

Question 21

What did Baddeley find in the dual task studies?

Answer 21

Baddeley found that the participant could do DIFFERENT tasks that take up CAPACITY in DIFFERENT stores (e.g visual and verbal). When participants were asked to complete a verbal task in the Articulatory Loop and a separate task in the Central Executive, the recall is NOT affected.
However, when the same participants were asked to complete two SIMILAR tasks (i.e both in the ARTICULATORY LOOP) then recall on the first task is affected.

Question 22

Why were Baddeleys findings a strength of the WMM?

Answer 22

This is a strength as this demonstrates that the short term memory consists of different stores, each with limited capacity.
Participants can easily complete tasks that use different slave components as there is no overloading their capacities. However, performing two similar tasks activates the same slave systems, so that recall on the first task was affected because the slave systems capacity was overloaded.

Question 23

Why may the Central Executive not be unitary?

Answer 23

The case study EVR had a tumour removed from their brain. Afterwards, EVR performed well on tests that required reasoning, which suggested that his Central Executive was intact. However, he had poor decision-making skills (e.g it would take him hours to decide where to eat).

Question 24

Why may EVRs case be a weakness of the WMM?

Answer 24

Because the CE is involved in HIGHER MENTAL PROCESSES such as REASONING and DECISION MAKING. If the CE was a single unitary store, higher mental processes should either be completely normal or completely damaged. However, in the case of EVR, it shows that some processes of the CE can remain intact while others are damaged. This shows there are SEVERAL COMPONENTS to the CE and can handle different types of human mental processes as in EVR’s case, only one is damaged.

Question 25

Who studied brain scans?

Answer 25

Cohen et al

Question 26

What did Cohen et al find through the brain scan studies?

Answer 26

Cohen et al found that brain activity was higher in the part of the brain known as Broca’s area (linked to speech production) when participants were completing a verbal task. Whereas when participants were completing a task using the Visual spatial sketchpad, regions of the occipital lobe had higher brain activity (which is linked to visual processing).

Question 27

Why are Cohen et al’s findings a strength of the WMM?

Answer 27

Because it provides physical evidence for the existence of the phonological loop and Visual spatial sketchpad. It also supports the phonological loop’s role in auditory and speech based tasks and the Visual spatial sketchpad’s role in visual tasks.

Question 28

Who found that the WMM does not account for all types of memory?

Answer 28

Berz

Question 29

What did Berz find?

Answer 29

Berz found participants were able to listen to instrumental music without impairing performance on other acoustic tasks.

Question 30

Why are Berz’s findings a weakness of the WMM?

Answer 30

Because according to the WMM, doing a verbal task while listening to music should lead to IMPAIRMENT.

As this is not the case, it suggests that there is a type of memory that the model does not account for - MUSICAL MEMORY.

Question 31

What type of memory does the working memory model not account for:

Answer 31

Musical memory