working memory model

Question 1

who proposed the working memory model

Answer 1

baddeley and hitch

Question 2

what is the working memory model

Answer 2

a three part system allowing us to perform cognitive task; the brain manipulates and assembles information to help us understand, make decisions and solve problems. explanation of one aspect of memory (STM) and how it is organised and functioned

Question 3

what is meant by working memory

Answer 3

concerned with part of the mind that is active when are temporarily storing and working with information

Question 4

why was the WMM proposed in the first place

Answer 4

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s MSM was criticised for over simplifying short term memory and long term memory as a simple storage system.

Question 5

what did Baddeley and Hitch say about STM

Answer 5

Rather than being a passive store that holds on to information and passes it to long term memory, we use short term memory to process, work on and combine multiple info. the working memory/STM is an active processor

Question 6

what did the WMM propose about STM

Answer 6

STM is composed of three, limited capacity stores - the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Question 7

what is the central executive

Answer 7

• pays attention to info from senses .
• it is the most important, involved in problem solving and decision making.
• it contols attention and integrates information from the slave systems as well as LTM.
• it is limited in how much info it can hold at any one time and can hold only one type of info at a time.
• can switch quickly between each type of info

Question 8

what is the capacity of the central executive

Answer 8

limited

Question 9

what are the three slave systems/stores

Answer 9

the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer (introduced later)

Question 10

what is the phonological loop

Answer 10

this temporarily retains language-based information and processes auditory info

Question 11

what does the phonological loop consist of

Answer 11

the phonological store (inner ear) and articulatory process (inner voice)

Question 12

what is the phonological store

Answer 12

it holds on to words that are heard, in the order in which it was heard for a brief period of time. also known as the inner ear

Question 13

what is the articulatory process

Answer 13

it allows subvocal repetition of items stored in the phonological store. for maintenance rehearsal. also inclused any langauge presented visually to convert to a phonological state. also known as the inner voice

Question 14

what is the capacity of the phonological loop

Answer 14

2 seconds

Question 15

what is the coding of the PL

Answer 15

acoustic

Question 16

what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Answer 16

this temporarily retains visual and spatial information. it sets up and manipulates mental images. also known as inner eye

Question 17

what is the capacity of the VSS

Answer 17

limited

Question 18

what is the VSS broken down into

Answer 18

the inner scribe and visual cache/store

Question 19

what is the inner scribe

Answer 19

deals with and records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 20

what is the visual cache/store

Answer 20

stores visual data

Question 21

what is the coding of the VSS

Answer 21

visual

Question 22

how do the PL and VSS work together

Answer 22

they work independantly of each other and make it possible for dual tasls which require use of both parts of working memory

Question 23

why was the episodic buffer introduced

Answer 23

it was introduced in 2000 in response to the criticism of the model in that it couldn’t explain how info was effectively combined from both visual, acoustic and LTM stores

Question 24

what is the episodic buffer

Answer 24

it facillitates communication between the CE and LTM. it integrates and manipulates material from LTM to meet requirements of the working memory. it is capable of binding info from different sources into chunks

Question 25

what is the capacity of the episodic buffer

Answer 25

limited

Question 26

what did baddeley do to test the model

Answer 26

he wanted to investigate if participants can use different parts of working memory at the same time. this was knwon as the “dual-task technique” or “intereference tasks”

Question 27

what was the procdure of the dual task technique (1)

Answer 27

• he conducted an experiment where participants were asked to perform two tasks at the same time
• a digital span task which required them to repeat a list of numbers (testing the PL)
• verbal reasoning task which required them to answer true or false to various questions (testing the CE)
• performance on both tasks were measured

Question 28

what were the findings of this experiment (1)

Answer 28

as the number of digits increased in the digit span tasks, participants took longer to answer reasoning questions but not much longer - only a fraction of a second
participants didnt make any more errors in verbal reasoning tasks as number of digits increased. performance on both tasks was good

Question 29

what was the procedure of the dual task technique (2)

Answer 29

• 2 visual tasks (tracking moving lights and describing angles of Letter F)
• 1 visual and 1 verbal

Question 30

what were the findings of this experiment (2)

Answer 30

participants were better at doing the separate visual and verbal tasks

Question 31

what were the conclusions of both experiments

Answer 31

the verbal reasoning tasks made use of CE and digit span tasks made use of PL. as tasks used different components of WM, they were able to perform well on both. this showed that the visuospatial sketchpad as a separate process from verbal processing (PL)

Question 32

what happens if one store is utilised for both tasks

Answer 32

task performance is poorer than when they are complete separately due to the store’s limited capacity. for e.g - “repeating “the the the” aloud and reading some text silently would use the PL for both tasks, slowing performance

Question 33

what happens if different stores are used for both tasks

Answer 33

performance would be unaffected when performing them simultaneously. for e.g “repeating “the the the” aloud whilst performing a reasoning task (which requires attention, i.e the CE) or whilst following a mobile stimulus with your eyes (using the VSS)

Question 34

what are the strengths of the WMM

Answer 34

• provides an explanation for parallel processing (where processes involved in a cognitive task occur at once)
• a Shallice and Warrington case study reported that brain damaged patient KF could recall verbal but not visual information immediately after its presentation, which supports the WMM’s claim that separate ST stores manage ST phonological and visual memories
• model was developed based on evidence from lab experiments so confounding variables could be carefully controlled to produce reliable results (that can be replicated)
• accurate in describing STM as an active processor
• makes sense of a range of tasks

Question 35

what are the weaknesses of the WMM

Answer 35

• has been criticised for being too simplistic and vague, e.g. it is unclear what the CE is or what its role is in attention
• results from lab experiments will often have low ecological validity as tasks such as repeating “the the the” are not representative of our everyday activities
• lack mundane realism as data collected in experimental situations may not be generalisable to how we use memory in everyday life
• only involves STM
• Lieberman criticises the model as the VSS implies all spatial info was first visual however blind people have excellent spatial awareness but they never had any visual info.
• cognitive psychologists cant directly observe WMM, they have to make inferences (bias)