Working memory model

Question 1

What is the central executive

Answer 1

-Key component
-Has a supervisory role
-Monitors incoming data and divides attention and allocates taks to slave systems.
-Doesn’t store info
-Responsible for problem solving and decision making
-Very limited capacity
-Modality free coding

Question 1

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Question 2

what is the phonological loop

Answer 2

-Inner voice
-Deals with auditory information and preserves order of info
-Phonological store (inner ear) which stores the words we hear
- Articulatory system (inner voice) allows for maintenance rehearsal
- 2 second capacity
- Coded acoustically

Question 3

what is the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 3

-Stores visual and spatial information
-Used for planning visual tasks
-Visual cache stores the visual data
-Inner scribe records arrangement of objects within the visual field
-Capacity of 3-4 objects
-Coded for visually

Question 4

what is the episodic buffer

Answer 4

-Temporary store for information
-Interpreting all types of information from other stores
-Responsible for maintaining a sense of time sequencing
-Links the working model to the LTM and wider cognitive processes eg. perception
-Capacity 4 chunks
-Modality free coding

Question 5

evals

Answer 5

One length of the working memory model is clinical evidence. This can be seen by Shallice and Warrington study on patient KF who suffered from brain damage and found his memory of auditory information was far worse than his memory of visual information.This is a strength because it provides evidence for separate memory, stores for different types of information, visual info in the visual spatial sketchpad and auditory info in a phonological loop, as KF did not have separate memory stores, all types of information/memory would be affected equally

Question 6

evals

Answer 6

Strength of the working memory model is research support. This can be seen by baddelly et all research into tasks which found that participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks, then one visual and one verbal task. This is a strength because it shows when doing to visual tasks we are competing for the same slave system and no competition with verbal and visual tasks are undertaken at the same time as these are different separate slave systems.

Question 7

evals

Answer 7

One weakness of the working memory model is the vague description of the central executive. This can be seen as baddelly stated the central executive is the most important at least understood component of the working memory model. This is a weakness because it suggests the central executive is oversimplified and not fully explained, and the working memory model is therefore too simple of an explanation for the cognitive functions that occur through memory.

Question 8

evals

Answer 8

P: strength of the working memory model is the evidence for the central executive.
E: This can be seen in braver et al research which involved brain scanning and found greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex for activities involving the central executive activity increased as tasks became harder