Working memory model

Question 1

WMM is a theory about which type of memory?

Answer 1

Short-Term memory

Question 2

What are the parts of WMM?

Answer 2

Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad, Phonological loop and the Central Executive

Question 3

What is the VSSP for?

Answer 3

visual information like size, colour and shape (with one pace for spatial awareness and another for colour etc)

Question 4

What is the phonological loop for?

Answer 4

Auditory information

Question 5

What is the articulatory process of the phonological loop?

Answer 5

Inner voice- responsible for subvocalisation

Question 6

What is the Phonological store of the phonological loop?

Answer 6

Inner ear- responsible for word sound storage

Question 7

What is the capacity of the PL and VSSP?

Answer 7

Very limited

Question 8

What is the Central executive responsible for?

Answer 8

Attention, controlling the slave systems and switching tasks

Question 9

What do we know about the modality and the capacity of the central executive?

Answer 9

It is modality free (can handle any type of stimulus), It has no storage

Question 10

What do we know about dual tasks?

Answer 10

You cannot use any of the subcomponents at the time for two tasks i.e. PL and VSSP at same time, You can use two different subcomponents for different tasks at the same time i.e. one PL and one VSSP

Question 11

How does KF support this model?

Answer 11

His visual memory was unaffected whilst his verbal was impaired following a motorbike accident showing there are 2 types of STM

Question 12

How does Robbins (or Baddeley & Hitch) support the theory?

Answer 12

They showed the dual task process, when you use two different stores at the same time your abilities are uneffected by are when you use the same store twice

Question 13

What did Parkin show?

Answer 13

The CE wasn’t detectable using brain scans (so isn’t empirical) so the theory might not be an accurate representation of human memory

Question 14

The Episodic Buffer (storage for CE and intergration of VSSP/PL) was added in 2000- what does this tell us about the theory?

Answer 14

It was originally incomplete and therefore not a credible explanation of memory as it was reductionist

Question 15

Why is WMM superior to MSM?

Answer 15

It shows that STM is not a unitary store and there are multiple parts i.e. VSSP and PL- MSM has a too simplistic a view of memory

Question 16

Why is MSM superior to WMM?

Answer 16

It includes SM, STM and LTM whereas WMM only looks at STM meaning MSM is a less simplistic explanation of memory

Question 17

How is this useful to explain dementia?

Answer 17

The CE ability is declining meaning they cannot pay attention or switch tasks so get confused

Question 18

How is this useful for education?

Answer 18

It tells us not to talk when the teacher is as this will overload the limited capacity of the phonological loop meaning information will not be stored easily

Question 19

Problems with the research into WMM ?

Answer 19

They use artificial tasks like word recall lists and attention tasks which are low in mundane realism and might not tell us about real world memory