Working Memory Model Flashcards
who proposed the working memory model?
Baddeley and Hitch 1974
what is the working memory model?
an explanation that sees short-term memory as an active store holding several pieces of info simultaneously
what are the components of the working memory model?
-the central executive (controls the other two ‘slave systems’)
-the phonological loop
-the visuo-spatial sketchpad
-the episodic buffer
what does the central executive do?
-filters what info is received by the senses and what isn’t
-process info in all sensory forms and directs it to the accurate slave system
-limited capacity, can only effectively cope with one strand of info at a time
-attains a balance between tasks when attention needs to be divided between them
research on the central executive
Baddeley 1996 - discovered p’s found it difficult to generate lists of numbers while also switching between pressing numbers and letters on a keyboard, suggesting the tasks were competing for CE resources, supporting the idea of a limited capacity
evaluate the central executive
-little is known about it, its unclear how it works or what it does, so can’t be used to explain experimental results
-CE is better understood as a component controlling the focus of attention rather than being a memory store
what is the phonological loop?
-deals with auditory info and the order of the info (eg the order in which words occurred)
-limited capacity, determined by the amount of info that can be spoken in 2 seconds
-divided into 2 sub-parts
what are the 2 sub-parts of the phonological loop? what do they do?
-primary acoustic store (PAS) - ‘inner ear’, stores words recently heard
-articulatory process (AP) - ‘inner voice’, keeps info in the PL through sub-vocal repetition, linked to speech production
research on the phonological loop
-Baddeley 1975 - the capacity of the PL is set by how long it takes to say words, rather than the number of them
-Trojani & Grossi 1995 - case study of someone who had brain damage in their PL but not VSS, suggesting separate systems
evaluate the phonological loop
-PET scans show different brain areas activated when doing verbal and visual tasks, showing separate systems, reflecting the biology of the brain
-PL strongly associated with the evolution of human vocal language, significant increase in the short-term ability to remember vocalisations, helping learn more complex language abilities eg grammar and expression
what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
-‘inner eye’
-handles non-phonological info
-a temporary store for visual and spatial items and the relationship between them
-helps people navigate and interact with their environment,
-info is coded and rehearsed through the use of mental pictures
-two sub-divisions
what are the 2 sub-divisions of the visuo-spatial sketchpad? who identified them? what do they do?
-Logie 1995
-Visual Cache (VC) - stores visual material about form and colour
-Inner Scribe (IS) - handles spatial relationships and reherses and transfers info in VC to CE
research on the visuo-spatial sketchpad
-Klauer & Zhao 2004 - more inference between two visual tasks than between a visual and spatial task
-Gathercole & Baddeley 1993 - p’s had difficulty tracking a moving point while also describing angles of a hollow letter F because they both require VSS, while there was less difficulty when combined with a PL task, indicating separate systems
evaluate the visuo-spatial sketchpad
-PL and VSS located in different brain areas, and PET scans show activation in the left hemisphere for visual tasks and right for spatial info, supporting dub-divisions
-studies of VSS often use dual task technique, which aren’t encountered in everyday life and so can be accused of lacking mundane realism
what is the episodic buffer?
when and why was it added to the working memory model?
-added in 2000 as the WMM needed a general store to operate properly
-introduced to explain how it’s possible to temporarily store info combined from the CE, PL, VSS and LTM
