Working Memory Model

Question 1

Baddeley and Hitch - WMM

Answer 1

WMM is a model of STM - concerned with mental space that is active, e.g. when doing arithmetic problems.

[Diagram in Book]

Question 2

Central Executive (CE)

Answer 2

1) Supervisory Role - monitors incoming data, directs attention and allocates subsystems to tasks.
2) Limited storage capacity.

Question 3

Phonological Loop (PL)

Answer 3

1) PL deals with auditory info and preserves the order in which the information arrives.
2) Subdivided into:
• Phonological store: stores the words you hear.
• Articulatory process: allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds to keep them in WM while they are needed).

Question 4

Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (VSS)

Answer 4

1) Stores visual and/or spatial info when required, (e.g. recalling how many windows your house has).
2) Logie (1995) subdivided the VSS into:
• Visual cache: stores visual data.
• Inner scribe: records arrangement of objects in visual field.

Question 5

Episodic Buffer (EB) - Added

Answer 5

1) A temporary store for info.
2) Integrates visual, spatial, and verbal information from other stores.
3) Maintains sense of time sequencing - recording events (episodes) that are happening.
Links to LTM.

Question 6

STRENGTH of Model

Answer 6

CLINICAL EVIDENCE

1) For example, Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied patient KF who had a brain injury.
2) His STM for auditory
info was poor (damaged PL) but he could process visual info normally (intact VSS).
—> Supports WMM view that there are separate visual and acoustic memory stores.

COUNTER:
1) KF may have had other impairments which explained poor memory performance apart from damage to PL - challenges clinical evidence from clinical studies of brain injury.

Question 7

STRENGTH of Model

Answer 7

RESEARCH SUPPORT - DUAL TASK

1) Baddeley et al.’s (1975) participants found it harder to carry out two visual tasks at the same time than do a verbal and a visual task together.
2) This is because both visual tasks compete for the same subsystem (VSS). There is no competition with verbal and visual task.
—> So must be a separate subsystem that process visual input (VSS) and separate system for verbal processes (PL).

Question 8

LIMITATION of model

Answer 8

LACK OF CLARITY

1) Baddley (2003) said the CE was the most important but the least understood component of working memory.
2) There must be more to the CE than just being ‘attention’ eg. it Is made up of separate subcomponents.
—> Therefore CE is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the model.