Working Memory Model Flashcards
What part of the memory does this deal with?
Short term memory
Describe the phonological loop?
- Limited capacity
- Deals with acoustic/sound information
- Split into two sub-systems: An Articulatory Loop and a Primary Acoustic Store
What are the sub-systems of the Phonological Loop?
- Articulatory Loop: Inner voice which voices information you are rehearsing
- Primary Acoustic Store: Holds on to the memory of sounds
Describe the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad
- Visual (what things look like) and spatial (relationship between things) information is stored here
- Limited Capacity
- Split into two sub divisions (Logie 1995): -Visuo-cache (store) & Inner scribe for spatial relations
Describe the Central Executive
- Has no storage (allocates memories to the slave systems)
- Manages two slave systems
- Pays attention and switches tasks
- Has non-specific modality- can process any of the 5 senses
What does dual tasks tell us about the WMM?
You can do two tasks without much difficulty if the two tasks use two different stores (VSSP AND PL)
However if they use the same store you will be unable to do both of them
What was added in 2000 and what does it do
The episodic buffer
- extra storage system
- Integrates information from all other areas
Supporting Evidence
Corsi block tapping task. This involved participants being required to recall a sequence of dots appearing on a screen. It showed there was a limited capacity to the VSSP as participants did worse as the number of dots increased.
Robbins et al (1996):
Had chess players playing a game whilst either:-
Repetitive tapping
Random number generation (CE)
Pressing a keypad in a clockwise fashion (VSSP)
Rapidly repeating ‘See-Saw’ (PL)
Since chess uses CE and VSSP when doing the other tasks players got confused. ‘See-Saw’ did not affect their abilities
How is this reductionist?
Doesn’t go into depth about Long-Term memory whereas MSM does
Doesn’t take into account individual differences in memory ability
Assumes people do well in a task as they are using their CE effectively, but they might just have a good memory
How is this applicable to the real world?
Can be applied to education and how people attend to and process information
