Working memory model Flashcards
Who proposed the working memory model?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
What does the working memory model replace?
The concept of a unitary short term memory
What is the working memory model?
A flexible system concerned with active processing and short term storage of information
What are the 3 main components?
- Central executive
- Phonological loop
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad
Explain what the central executive is and its features
-The most important component in WMM.
-Involved in problem solving and decision making.
Features:
-controls attention and important in planning and producing information.
-flexible
-processes info from any modality/senses
-limited storage capacity
Explain what the phonological loop is and its features
- Stores limited number of speech based sounds for brief periods
-deals with auditory info and preserves order of information
DIVIDED INTO;
-Phonological store
-Articulatory control processes
Explain what the phonological store is and its features
- AKA inner ear
- allows acoustically coded items to be stored for brief periods
- important for language acquisiton
Explain what the articulatory control process is and its features
- AKA inner voice
- Allows subvocal repetition f items to be stored in the phonological store
How can repetition be prevent in articulatory control processes by?
Articulatory supression
- PP’s repeat aloud an irrelevant sound to the memory task to prevent the phonological loop from retaining any information
Explain what the visuo-spatial sketchpad is and its features
Stores visual and spatial information
- AKA inner eye
- FEATURES;
- sets up and manipulates mental images
- analyses features in terms of shape,size and colour
- processes movements and actions and static visual patterns
- Limited capacity
What is the episodic buffer?
Additional component to WMM b Baddeley (2000)
- Integrates and manipulates material in WMM
What are the features of episodic buffer?
- Limited capacity so depends on executive processing
- Integrates info from different sources into chunks or episodes
- One of main functions- Integrate materials from LTM
What are the strengths of the working memory model?
- Effectively explains the ability to carry out tasks by storing information briefly while simultaneously processing them
- Very influential model
- Doesn’t over emphasise the importance of rehearsal for STM retention
- Supported by studies using brainscans. PET scans shown different areas of brain used while doing visual and verbal tasks.
- Paulescu et al (1993)- may correspond to working memory components.
What is the evidence supporting Phonological loop?
Baddeley et al (1975)
- Did studies investigating the word length effect
- But when PP’s were prevented from sub-vocally rehearsing the words by being asked to repeat an irrelevant sound (articulatory suppression), the word length effect disapeared ( thus shorts words were not recalled any better than long words)
- Assumed that the articulatory suppression fills the phonological loop hence removes the advantage of rehearsal.
- Some words were still recalled so it’s possible that the central executive takes over the recall task.]
What is the evidence supporting the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
Baddeley et al (1973)
- Gave PP’s a tracking task involving holding a pointer with a moving light. At the same time, half PP’s described angles on letter F.
- PP’s found it difficult bcos they uses the visuo-spatial sketchpad for both
- The other half of PP’s did a tracker task with a verbal task
- PP’s had little difficultly doing both tasks at the same time bcos use different slave systems (visual and verbal)
