working memory model Flashcards
what type of memory is working memory a model of?
short term memory
who came up with the working memory model?
baddeley and hitch (1974)
what is the working memory model?
concerned with the mental space that is active when working on an arithmetic problem or playing chess
what are the 4 components of the working memory model?
central executive
phonological loop
visuospatial sketchpad
episodic buffer
describe the coding and capacity of the central executive
coding is flexible, and capacity is very limited
describe the coding and capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad
coding is visual and spatial, capacity is around 3-4 objects
describe the coding and capacity of the phonological loop
coding is acoustic, capacity is around 2 seconds worth of what you can say
describe the coding and capacity of the episodic buffer
coding is flexible, capacity is around 4 chunks
outline the working memory model (ao1)
the model is an explanation of how short term memory is organised in its functions different to that of the multi store model
states you can complete tasks of different modalities at the same time
if you try to do 2 tasks of same modality at same time performance of both will be impaired
outline the central executive (ao1)
the supervisory component of the model that drives the system and decides how attention is directed
outline the phonological loop (ao1)
one of the slave systems that deals with auditory information and the order of information
baddeley (1986) divided it into two components:
phonological store - holds info in speech based form for 1-2 seconds
articulatory control process - used to rehearse verbal information from the phonological store in a loop
outline the visuospatial sketchpad (ao1)
the second slave system holds visual and spatial information for a very short time. used when planning a spatial task.
divided into 2 components:
visual cache - stores visual data
inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in the visual field
outline the episodic buffer (ao1)
added in 2000. general storage space for both verbal and acoustic information. integrates info from other slave systems to form episodes of information
who researched the central executive?
baddeley (1996)
what was baddeley’s (1996) aim?
to investigate the existence of the central executive
what was baddeley’s (1996) procedure?
asked p’s to think of random digits with no connection to each other. this was either carried out on its own, or with one of 3 tasks:
- reciting the alphabet
- counting from 1
- alternating between numbers and letters e.g a1 b2 c3…
what were baddeley’s (1996) results?
generated number stream was much less random in condition 3. baddeley supports the idea of a central executive as it shows there are limited resources, due to poor performance in more demanding tasks
what was baddeley’s (1996) conclusion?
they were competing for same central executive resources
who researched into the phonological loop?
baddeley, thompson and buchanan (1975)
what was baddeley’s, thompson’s and buchanan’s aim?
to investigate the functions of the phonological loop
what was baddeley’s, thompson’s and buchanan’s procedure?
presented participants with five words for very brief periods of time and were asked to recall them. p’s placed in one of two conditions:
condition one - monosyllabic words e.g ham , wit , twice
condition two - polysyllabic words e.g organisation, university
what were baddeley’s, thompson’s and buchanan’s findings?
average correct recall over several trials showed participants remembered the short words much better
what was baddeley’s, thompson’s and buchanan’s conclusion?
there was evidence for word length effect supporting the phonological loop
who researched into visuspatial sketchpad?
shepard and feng (1972)
what was shepard and feng’s aim?
to investigate functions of the visuspatial sketchpad
what was shepard and feng’s procedure?
p’s presented with cube nets and asked to try and fold the cube in their heads and answer the question ‘do the points meet?’ or had to fold it then answer the question.
what were shepard and feng’s results?
they found a strong correlation between time taken scores for mental and physical folding
what was shepard and feng’s conclusion?
suggests we use the visuospatial sketchpad to do the folding much similar to real life
strengths of wmm
support from : hm, baddeley (1996), shepard and feng (1972), and baddeley, thompson and buchanan (1975)
support from word length effect which shows people have difficulty remembering lists of long words compared to short words
can account for research previously used to support msm - concurrent validity
dual task performance studies support the vss - harder to carry out two visual tasks than a visual task and a verbal task
limitations of wmm
lack of clarity over central executive - how does it decide to pay attention? and is it made up of sub components
link between wm and ltm is not fully explained unlike the msm - fails to explain how info enters ltm
model is supported by highly controlled lab studies - may undermine validity
