Working Memory Model Flashcards
Why was the model proposed?
As an alternative to the MSM challenging the concept of a single unitary store for STM. It is based on findings from a dual task study and suggest that there are four separate components to a working memory.
What’s the word length effect?
Easier to remember shorter than longer words
What are the parts of the working memory model?
The central executive
The phonological loop
The episodic buffer
The visuospatial sketchpad
And long-term memory storage
What does the central executive do?
It doesn’t have a store of its own, it controls the other systems and stores. A limited number of speech, but sounds for brief periods
What does the phonological loop contain?
Articulatory control system= voices in your head/inner voice
The phonological store = what you hear being said to you, held in order
What’s the episodic buffer?
Communication centre (takes from LTM and takes to central executive)
It holds and coordinates from all three other stores as well
What’s the visuospatial sketchpad?
Recalling an image from memory
And spatial information, like being able to know things around you (location and what’s around you)
What does the central executive do in more detail?
A controlling attentional mechanism with a limited capacity. It monitors and coordinates operation of the other two components. It’s involved in problem-solving and decision-making. It controls attention and plays a role in planning and synthesising information - from the subsidiary systems, but also from LTM. It has a limited capacity so can only attend to a limited number of things at one time.
What is the phonological loop in more detail?
It stored a limited number of speech based sounds for brief periods of time
It consists of the phonological store (inner ear) which allows acoustically and go to the items to be stored for a brief period. The memory trace lasts 1.5 to 2 seconds, if it does not refresh itself via the articulatory control system. It can receive information directly from the sensory register, or from long-term memory.
And the articulatory control system (inner voice) which allows subvocal repetition of the items stored in the phonological store. It is a viable rehearsal system. It holds information that we want to maintain or are preparing to speak.
How does multitasking work?
Only works if you use two different stores
Dual task paradigm : David found it difficult to revise for his university exams whilst listening to a podcast. His university lecturer said that this may be explained by the working memory model.
Explain using the working memory model why David found it difficult to revise
- phonological loop - use both and revision & podcast
- articulatory rehearsal - encodes information scan/read into sound ‘ inner voice ‘
David revising for example, reading his notes, requires the use of a articulatory rehearsal
Phonological store - retain sounds hard in the correct order
David, listening to a podcast, uses the store and help him understand info information being listened to
Both use the phonological loop which has a capacity of two seconds therefore overloading loop
Central executive - control systems can only focus attention on one task (shift attention between them)
Therefore, David may not have paid attention to his revision, so struggles in uni exams and can’t recall information
What is the visuospatial sketchpad in more detail?
Its stores are visual and spatial information (inner eye) and it is responsible for setting up and manipulating mental images. It has limited capacity.
It also helps to recreate images over based on something we’ve seen in real time or something we’ve seen in the past . (it stores visual information.) it has a limited capacity of 3 to 4 objects.
Explain the episodic buffer more detail
In 2000 baddeley proposed an additional component - the episodic buffer. This is responsible for integrating and manipulating material. It has limited capacity and depends heavily on executive processing. It binds together information from different sources into chunks or episodes. An important function is recalling information from LTM and integrating it into STM when working memory requires it.
Switzerland and Schumann - Hengsteler (2000)
Conducted an experiment in which they introduced to different sources of interference. A visual sources ; tapping items on a map and sound based source, listening to irrelevant speech. Participants were asked to carry out a mathematical task which involved doing multiplication sums, and then task was disrupted by the two interference tasks. Only the speech interfered with the task., which suggests that visual and verbal information are processed separately
Conrad (1964)
Found evidence for the acoustic encoding of information. He presented participants with a series of six letters visually. They were then asked to recall them immediately. They tended to model up letters such as BVD and FSX. The majority of errors related to similar sounding letters.
