Working Memory Model Flashcards
Working memory model: (WMM)
A representation of STM. It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision making system.
Central executive: (CE) D
The component of the WMM that co-ordinates the activities of the 3 subsystems in memory. It also allocates processing resources to those activities.
Phonological loop: (PL) D
The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound. This includes both written and spoken material. It’s divided into the phonoloigcal store and the articulatory process.
Visuo-spatial sketchpad: (VSS) D
The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called the ‘inner eye.’
Episodic buffer: (EB) D
The component of the WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. It provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory.
CE:
- Essentially an attentional process that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to tasks.
- The slave systems are described below. The central executive has very limited processing capacity.
PL:
- One of the slave systems is the phonological loop and it deals with auditory information (acoustic) and preserves the order in which the information arrives.
- Subdivided into the phonological store, which stores the words you hear.
- The articulatory process which allows maintenance rehearsal.
- The capacity of this ‘loop’ is believed to be 2 seconds worth of what you say.
VSS:
1.Second slave system is the visuo-spatial sketchpad and stores visual and or spatial information.
2. It also has a limited capacity to (Baddeley 2003) 3 or 4 objects.
3. Logie (1995) subdivided the VSS into the visual cache (stores visual data). Inner scribes (records the arrangement of objects in the visual field).
EB:
- Third slave system and was added to the model by Baddeley in 2000.
- It is a temporary store for information integrating the visual, spatial and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing.
- It can be seen as the storage component of the central executive and has a limited capacity of about 4 chunks (Baddeley 2012).
- Links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception.
E: Clinical Evidence
- Support for the WMM comes Shallice and Warrington’s (1970) case study of patient KF who had suffered brain damage.
- After this, KF had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information visually.
- This suggest that his PL had been damaged leaving the other areas of memory intact.
- Supports the existence of a separate visual and acoustic store.
- However, evidence from brain-damaged patients may not be reliable because it concerns unique cases with patients who had traumatic experiences.
E: Dual Task Performance
- Studies of DTP support the separate existence of the VSS.
- Baddeley et al. (1975) showed that pps had more difficulty doing 2 visual tasks than doing both a visual and verbal task at the same time.
- This is because both visual tasks compete for the same slave system whereas, when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously, there is no competition.
- There’s a separate slave system that processes visual input.
E: Lack of clarity over the CE
- Cognitive psychologists suggest that his component of the WMM is unsatisfactory and doesn’t explain much.
- Baddeley acknowledge that the CE is ‘the least understood component of working memory’ (Baddeley,2003).
- The CE needs to be more clearly specified than being simply ‘attention.’ May have several components.
- WMM not fully explained.
