Working Memory Model (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) Flashcards
What does the WMM show?
Goes into detail about the STM store.
What is the idea of the dual test paradigm?
- Sound and vision are processed separately by memory.
- (Baddeley noticed in early experiments that P’s who were asked to listen to 2 things or look at 2 things became confused, but were able to listen while looking at something else).
What are the 3 ‘Slave Systems’?
- Phonological Loop
- Visuo Spatial Sketchpad
- Episodic Buffer
Which part of WMM handles sound?
Phonological loop (“inner ear”).
Which part of WMM handles vision?
Visuo Spatial Sketchpad (“inner eye”)
What manages the 2 slave systems?
the Central Executive (what Baddeley described as a “little man” (“homounculus”) inside your head, organising your memories).
What does the CE do?
- Allocates memories to the slave systems.
- Retrieves info from the 5 senses or the LTM and assigns it to the Phonological Loop or VSSP for processing.
- Has non-specific modality (can process any of the 5 senses).
What 2 sub-systems is the phonological loop split into?
- Articulatory loop (“inner voice”): voices the information you are rehearsing.
- Primary Acoustic Store: holds onto the memory of sounds.
What does the articulatory loop engage in?
Subvocalising: mental “talking to yourself” that goes on in your head (similar to the rehearsal loop in the MSM).
What does the Episodic Buffer do?
- Works between the PLoop and VSSP.
- Binds together visual and phonological memories into single episodes, which are then stored in the Episodic LTM.
- Multi-modal (not limited to one sense unlike other 2 slave systems).
What’s the CE’s role with the episodic buffer?
- CE selects info from the 2 slave systems to go into the EB to form an episode of memory.
- EB “downloads” episodes from LTM, sending them on to the CE to be analysed and recalled to conscious memory.
What are the pros and cons Baddeley (2003) find?
Dual test: Provides evidence for MSM
- (P’s get confused by lists that are acoustically similar rather than semantically similar - suggests P Loop codes acoustically and gets over-loaded).
- Baddeley (2003) found similar-sounding letters (e.g. B, C, D, T) aren’t recalled as well as dissimilar sounding letters (e.g. W, X, K, R).
However:
- Baddeley’s study lacks ecological validity (and mundane realism) by asking p’s to recall lists of letters. This means the evidence for the theory is weaker, making the WMM less credible as a theory of memory.
- This reduces the effectiveness of the theory.
How does K.F. provide evidence for WMM?
K.F. suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident that damaged his hippocampus and STM.
- K.F. struggled to process verbal info but his visual memory was unaffected.
- Shows that VSSP is processed separately from verbal info (phonological loop).
However:
- The low generalisability of K.F.s results (as its a case study with unique injuries and circumstances) reduces the strength of the evidence for the WMM. This makes the WMM less applicable in society as evidence can’t be generalised to the gen popn.
- This reduces the effectiveness of the theory.
How does Lieberman (1980) go against the WMM?
- Suggested blind people who have never had visual information have great spatial awareness (as they can remember where things are and not bump into them).
- Lieberman argues that the VSSP should have 2 different components: visual memory and spatial memory.
Why does the WMM have good reliability?
- WMM was developed overtime and had different versions.
- In 2000, Baddeley & Hitch introduced the episodic buffer to develop their theory to explain how visual and acoustic memory interacts with eachother and is encoded into the LTM.
- This increases the reliability of the theory as developments were made to make sure it was a full-proof theory.
- In 2000, Baddeley & Hitch introduced the episodic buffer to develop their theory to explain how visual and acoustic memory interacts with eachother and is encoded into the LTM.
