Working memory model Flashcards
What is working memory?
The part of memory that you are using when you work on something (active processor)
What is the central executive? What is its capacity?
- Attentional process that monitors incoming data, making decisions and allocating tasks to the most appropriate slave system
- Data arrives from senses or LTM
- Very limited capacity
What are the functions of the central executive?
- Direct attention to tasks
- Decides where information needs to go (which slave system)
What is the phonological loop? What is its capacity/code?
- Deals with auditory information
- Preserves the order in which information arrives
- Phonological stores holds words that are heard
- Articulatory proccess holds words that are hear/seen and silently repeated (two seconds worth of what you can say)
- Limited capacity
- Acoustic code
What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad? What is its capacity/code?
- Stores visual/spatial information
- Visuo-cache stores information about visual items e.g form and colour
- Inner scribe stores the arrangement of objects in the visual field
- Limited 3-4 object capacity
- Visual code
What is the episodic buffer?
- Temporary store for information, integrating visual, spatial and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining time sequencing
- Sends information to and from LTM
- Storage component with a limited capacity of ~4 chunks
What is the evaluation for the weakness of the working memory model?
Problems with the central executive
* Critics have raised concerns about the central executive
* Some question what it actually is, and it seems it is just how the brains ‘resources’ are allocated to the tasks, which is essentially the same as attention. Critics think this is too vague and doesn’t really explain anything. Baddely described the component as the ‘most important but least understood’
* Some psychologists claim that the component isn’t just one single component, but a multi-part component. EVR was a patient who had a cerebral tumour removed, performing well on reasoning tests but has poor decision making skills, showing both of these tasks use the central executive
* The account of the central executive is unsatisfactory because it fails to explain anything, as it is probably far more complicated than currently represented
What are the evaluations of the strengths of the working memory model?
Support for separate slave systems
* Supports the existence of the VSS and the PL
* Participants were given a visual tracking task (tracking laser pointer) and also given an extra task of either: Task 1 describing all the angles in the letter F; or Task 2 performing a verbal task.
* Participants had much more difficulty when both tasks used the VSS, as both tasks had to compete for the attention of one slave system.
* This evidence clearly supports the notion of separate components within the STM
Evidence from brain damaged patients
* Support for WMM comes from case studies of brain damaged patients
* A study of patient KF, a man whose brain has been injured in a motorcycle accident. KF’s LTM was normal but STM was impaired, only recalling 1 or 2 items from a list. Further investigation showed that KF struggled to process verbal info but visual memory was fine.
* This suggests it was only the phonological loop that was damaged but VSS was fine
* This supports evidence for separate visual and acoustic stores, but evidence may not be accurate as patients are unique cases with traumatic experiences
Evidence from brain imaging studies
* Brain imagine studies show support of WMM
* If all of the subparts are classified as different processors, different parts of the brain should be operating them
* A study gave their participants a task involving central executive whilst having a brain scan. The researchers found greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex. Further research shows the PL to be located in the temporal lobe, and the VSS in the right hemisphere (simple tasks in occipetal and complicated ones in the parietal)
* Evidence from brain scans shows different areas seem to be active when different processors are, supporting the WMM’s theory of separate systems
