working memory model - WMM

Question 1

What is working memory?

Answer 1

A limited capacity store for retaining inofrmation for a brief period while performing mental operations on that information.

Working memory has mostly replaced the use of the word stm form the msm

Question 2

Who created the WMM and why?

Answer 2

Baddeley & hitch (1974) belived that stm was not a unitary store like the msm suggests.
They also argued that it was active processor of information and not passive like the msm

Question 3

What is the role of the CE?

Answer 3

Supervisory role, does not store information

Functions:
Directs attention to tasks and makes decisions
Allocates tasks to the slave systems
Data arrives from the sneses or the LTM

Question 4

What capacity does the CE have?

Answer 4

very limited processing capacity

Question 5

What is the role of the phonological loop (PL)?

Answer 5

it processes auditory information, codes info acoustically

Question 6

phonological store (baddeley 1986)

Answer 6

holds acoutic info heard

Question 7

articulatory control process (baddeley 1986)

Answer 7

inner voice (maintenance)

Question 8

What capacity does PL have?

Answer 8

Limited capasity of 2 seconds

Question 9

What is the word length effect?

Answer 9

Immdediate memory span is better with short words

Short words can be articulated faster, so that more words can be silently atriculated before they decay

Question 10

What is the role of the visuospatial sketchpad (VSS)?

Answer 10

Processes visual and/or spatial (relationship between things) info

Question 11

Visual-cache (Logie 1995 )

Answer 11

which store info about visual items eg. Form / colour

Question 12

Inner scribe (Logie 1995 )

Answer 12

Stores information about the spatial relationship of items

Question 13

What capacity does vss have?

Answer 13

Limited capasity of 3-4 items

Question 14

What is the dual task technique?

Answer 14

Ones in which performance is measure as participants perform 2 tasks simultaneously

Question 15

baddeley (1975) - dual task technique

Answer 15

found that if one store is utilised for both tasks then task performance is poorer due to store’s limited capasity

Question 16

What is the role of the espisodic buffer (EB)?

Answer 16

Temporary store which integrates (moves) info from other slave systems

Question 17

Baddeley (2000) - episodic buffer (EB)

Answer 17

Baddeley (2000) added episodic buffer as he realised model needed a more general store

Question 18

What capacity does the EB have?

Answer 18

Limited capasity of approximately 4 chunks
It sends information to the LTM store

Question 19

A strength of the WMM is that is supported by clinical evidence of case studies of patients suffering from brain damage.

Answer 19

supports the idea that there are separate stores for visual, spatial and acoustic processing within STM and increases validity of the model

Question 20

what happened to KF?

Answer 20

KF suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident

His STM has issues

Unable to recall verbal (acoustic) information (pl)
but he could still process visually including faces (vss)

Question 21

limitation of the WMM from KF’s case study

Answer 21

It is unknown how the patients would have acted before the brain injury

not everyone with brain injury has it in the same place

Question 22

A strength of the WMM is that there is empirical evidence from dual task performance studies.

Answer 22

Ppts only had difficulty doing two similar tasks.

This shows evidence there are multiple components within our STM system which increases the validity of the model

Question 23

Baddeley and hitch (1976)

Answer 23

ppts has more difficulty doing 2 tasks which uses phonological loop

However when one task use their phonological loop (remembering numbers) and the other their VSS (copying a drawing) their performance was not affected

Question 24

A limitation of the WMM is that critics including Baddeley himself have have suggested that the CE component is too vague

Answer 24

The lack of clarity - questions the validity of this part of the model as it is not fully explained

the CE may consist of separate stores.