Working Memory Model (Memory) Flashcards
Central Executive
-Functions: direct attention to tasks, decides what working memory pays attention to
-manages the slave systems (phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketch pad, episodic buffer)
Phonological Loop
-Limited capacity
-deals with auditory information and preserves order
-Baddeley 1986 further subdivided it into: phonological store (holds on to words heard) and Articulatory process (holds words heard/seen and silently repeated (looped) like an inner voice This is a kind of maintenance rehearsal).
Visuo-spatial Sketch Pad
-Visual and/or spatial information stored here (inner eye)
-visual refers to what things look like and spatial refers to the relationships between things
-limited capacity
-Logie (1995) suggested subdivision: visuo-cache (store) and inner scribe for spatial relations
Episodic Buffer
-Baddeley 2000 added episodic buffer as he realised model needed a more general store
-slave systems deal with specific types of information
-buffer extra storage system but with limited capacity
-integrates information from all other areas
Baddeley and Hitch 1974
Believed memory is not just in one store, but in a number of different stores.
-only focused on STM
-LTM is a more passive store that holds previously learned material for use by the STM when needed
(Evaluation of WMM) Clinical evidence
Shallice and Warrington 1970 supports the existence of a separate visual and acoustic store.
However, this was a case study so results cannot be generalised.
(Evaluation of WMM) Duel Task Performance
Baddeley et al 1975
-Participants were given visual tracking task (tracking a moving light with a pointer). At the same time, they were given one of two other tasks
-Participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks than doing both a visual task and verbal task at the same time
(Evaluation of WMM) Other support of Baddeley’s research
Klauer and Zaho 2004: people given either spacial task or visual task + a visual interference task, a spatial interference task or no second task.
-people who had a spatial task performed poorer when they had a spatial distracter task and the same applied with visual distracters, showing separate visual and spatial stores.
PET scans have provided evidence for separate visual and spatial systems. More activity in the left for visual working memory tasks and the right for spatial working memory tasks.
(Evaluation of WMM) Evidence for the Episodic Buffer
Baddeley et al 1987
-Participants were shown words and then immediate recall
-Recall was much better for related words in sentences than unrelated words
Supports the idea of ‘general’ memory store that draws on LTM (semantics), for items that are neither visual nor phonological.
(Evaluation of WMM) Lack of clarity over the central executive
Baddeley 2003: “the CE is the most important but the least understood component of working memory”
Cognitive psychologists suggest that this component of the WMM is unsatisfactory and doesn’t explain anything.
(Evaluation of WMM) Studies of the word length effect support the phonological loop
Baddeley et al 1975 word length effect
-there is a finite space for rehearsal in the articulatory process
-WLE disappears if a person is given an articulatory suppression task
(Evaluation of WMM) Brain scanning studies support the WMM
Braver et al 1997- CE and brain scans.
Greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex. Increased as the task became harder as it worked harder to fulfil its function
