Working Memory Model

Question 1

Outline the working memory model (WMM)

Answer 1

• Addresses STM
• Concerned with the memory that you use when working on a complex task which requires you to store info as you go along.
• Baddeley and Hitch felt STM was a number of different stores. One for visual and one for processing sounds. This formed the basis of the WMM where systems are organised by the central executive

Question 2

Describe the central executive (CE)

Answer 2

• It directs attention to particular tasks, determining how the brain’s ‘resources’ are allocated to tasks.
• The ‘resources’ are the 3 systems. Data arrives from the senses or LTM.
• The CE has a very limited capacity; cannot attend to too many things at once and cannot store data

Question 3

Describe the phonological loop (PL)

Answer 3

• It has a limited capacity.
• Deals with with auditory information and preserves the order of it.
• Baddeley divided the loop into: The PL which holds the words you hear. And an articulatory process which is used for words that are heard or seen. These words are silently repeated, like an inner voice, which is a form maintenance rehearsal.

Question 4

Describe the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)

Answer 4

• The VSS is used when you have to plan a spatial task (e.g. getting from one room to another).
• Visual/spatial information is temporally stored here. Visual info is what things look like while spatial info is the physical relationship between 2 things
• Logie suggested that the VSS can be divided into: a visual cache that stores info about visual items e.g. form and colour. And an inner scribe that stores the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 5

Describe the episodic buffer (EB)

Answer 5

• Baddeley added the EB as a general store. The PL and VSS deal with processing and temporary storage of specific kinds of information. The CE has no storage capacity; so there was nowhere to hold both visual and acoustic information. The EB is an extra storage system that has limited capacity too
• The EB integrates info from the CE, PL and VSS. Also maintains a sense of time sequencing - basically recording events that are happening. The EB sends info to LTM

Question 6

Give evaluation for the WMM (case studies)

Answer 6

Supporting evidence from case studies. Shallice and Warrington studied KF, his ST forgetting of auditory info was greater compared to that of visual stimuli. His auditory problems were limited to verbal material like letters but not meaningful sounds, so his brain damage seemed to be restricted to the PL. Another patient, SC, had good learning ability but was unable to learn word pairs presented out loud, which Trojano and Grossi suggested was due to damage to the PL. Farah et al, studied LH who had a road accident and performed better on spatial tasks than those involving visual imagery. Supports the idea of separate visual and spatial systems, as suggested by the WMM

Question 7

Give evaluation for the WMM (dual task performance)

Answer 7

The main reason for developing the WMM was to account for dual task performance. Hitch and Baddeley supported the existence of the CE in their study. Participants performed Task 1 which occupied the CE, e.g. given a statement ‘B is followed by A’ then shown ‘AB’ and asked to say true or false. Then task 2 involved the articulatory loop (e.g. asked to repeat a word) or used the CE and the articulatory loop (e.g. saying random digits). Task 1 was slower when Task 2 used both the articulatory loop and CE. Demonstrates the dual task performance effect and shows that the CE is one of the components of working memory.

Question 8

Give evaluation for WMM (word-length effect)

Answer 8

Takes into account the word-length effect, people cope better with short words (STM). The PL holds the amount of info that you can say in 2 seconds (Baddeley et al), makes it harder to remember a list of long words compared to short words. The longer words can’t be rehearsed in the PL as they don’t fit. However the word-length effect disappears if a person is given an articulatory suppression task. This repetitive task ties up the articulatory process and means you can’t rehearse the shorter words more quickly than the longer ones, so the effect disappears. This is evidence for the articulatory process which is a key component of the WMM.