Working memory model

Question 1

what is the working memory model

Answer 1

Baddeley and Hitch explanation of how STM is organised and how it functions

concerned with the mental space that is active when we are temporary i’ll sorting and manipulating information

consist of four main components
central executive
phonological loop
visio-spatial sketch pad
episodic buffer

Question 2

what is the central executive

Answer 2

supervisory role

monitors incoming data

focuses and divides our limited attention and allocates subsystems to tasks

has very limited processing capacity and does not store information

Question 3

what is the phonological loop

Answer 3

subsystem

deals with auditory information

coding is acoustics and preserves the order in which info arrives

is divided into

phonological store - stores the words you hear

articulately process - allows maintainance rehearsal

Question 4

what is the visio-spatial sketch pad

Answer 4

subsystem

stores visual and or spatial info

limited capacity according to baddely - 3 or 4 objects

Logie divided into
visual cache - stores visual data
inner scribe- records the arrangements of objects in the visual field

Question 5

what is the episodic buffer

Answer 5

subsystem

added to model by baddeley in 2000

temporary store of info

interpreting the visual spatial and verbal info processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing

limited capacity of four chunks - Baddeley

links working memory model to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception

Question 6

give a strength of the working memory model

Answer 6

clinical evidence

strength

support from Shallice and Warringtons case study of patient KF

after his brain injury had poor STM ability for auditory info

could process visual info normally

KFS phonological loop was damaged but his visuo-spatial sketch pad was intact

this finding strongly supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores

Question 7

give a strength of the working memory model

Answer 7

dual task performance

strength

studies of dual task performance support the separate existence of visio spatial sketch pad

when baddeley et als participants carried out a visual and verbal task at the same time (dual task) their performance in both declined substantially

because both visual tasks compete for the same subsystems VSS

whereas there is no competition when performing a verbal and visual task together

shows there must be a separate subsystem VSS that processes visual input

Question 8

give a limitation of the working memory model

Answer 8

Nature of the central executive

limitation

lack of clarity over the nature of the centeral executive

central executive needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply attention

example - some psychologists believe that the central executive may consist of separate sub components

means that the central executive is an unsatisfactory component and this challenges the integrity of the working memory model