Working Memory Model, Baddeley and Hitch 1974

Question 1

The initial model stated that there were three components;

Answer 1

central executive, vssp and phonological loop, they later added the episodic buffer

Question 2

The central executive is seen as a homunculus because

Answer 2

it directs and controls the activity of the other components and it modality free

Question 3

The phonological loop is

Answer 3

an auditory store that rehearses sound based information to prevent decay

Question 4

The central executive can also retrieve information from

Answer 4

the ltm

Question 5

The slave systems exist because

Answer 5

as temporary storage systems they free up space in the central executive for more demanding tasks

Question 6

The phonological loop consists of two systems;

Answer 6

the articulatory rehearsal system and the phonological store

Question 7

The articulatory rehearsal system is known as the

Answer 7

inner voice

Question 8

The ARS has a time capacity of

Answer 8

2 seconds

Question 9

The ARS is where

Answer 9

you mentally rehearse information by repeating it over and over again

Question 10

The ARS can explain the word length effect because short monosyllabic words are recalled more successfully than longer polysyllabic words so

Answer 10

longer words fill up the limited capacity of the ARS resulting in decay of words positioned earlier in the list

Question 11

The phonological store is also known as

Answer 11

the inner ear

Question 12

The phonological store uses a sound based code to store information, but this info decays after

Answer 12

about 2 seconds unless it is rehearsed by the ARS

Question 13

The phonological store receives its input either

Answer 13

directly from the ears or from ltm, like imagining your fave song

Question 14

The PS can explain the phonological similarity effect

Answer 14

where it is difficult to remember similar sounding words and not semantically similar words as the PS encodes acoustically

Question 15

The VSSP stores and manipulates visual information and gets its input from

Answer 15

the eyes or ltm

Question 16

The role of the VSSP is to maintain and integrate visual and spatial info from the

Answer 16

visual cache and the inner scribe

Question 17

The visual cache is

Answer 17

one part of the VSSP which stores info about form and colour

Question 18

The Inner scribe is the part

Answer 18

which deals with spatial information and movement, but also rehearses all visuospatial info to be transferred to the CE

Question 19

The purpose of the episodic buffer is to

Answer 19

bind together all info from the other components with info about time and order, it is considered that the buffer brings in info from the LTM

Question 20

The episodic buffer was brought in

Answer 20

by Baddeley in 2000

Question 21

Poor working memory is associated with

Answer 21

dyslexia and specific language impairment

Question 22

It has application to real life to help people with dementia since

Answer 22

the episodic buffer helps people who cannot encode memories in LTM or have travel retrieving LTM. So, cognitive stimulation; playing an old song helps a patient remember where they first heard it.

Question 23

There is face validity because the idea of the inner ear and eye matches up with what it actually feels like and

Answer 23

it has also been supported by brain scanning which shows acoustic and visual encoding going on in different parts of the brain.

Question 24

The model is based on lab experiments involving dual tasks which lack mundane realism as in real life, even at cocktail parties

Answer 24

you use your other senses (such as paying attention to body language). If the experiments into WM lack ecological validity, then the model won’t explain how memory works in real life situations.

Question 25

Lieberman (1980) criticises working memory by pointing out out that blind people have spatial memory (they can remember where things are and not bump into them)

Answer 25

even though they have never had any visual information. Lieberman argues that the VSSP should have two different components: visual memory and spatial memory.

Question 26

What did Baddeley (2005) find?

Answer 26

That similar sounding letters (V, B, C, G) are not recalled as well as dissimilar sounding letters (X, O, J, Y) as participants get confused because PL encodes acoustically