Lesson 5: The Working Memory Model

Question 1

The working memory model

who proposed and what they argue

Answer 1

proposed by badelley and hitch (1974)
- argue theres different types of stm
- stm is more complex than just a memory store for info before being sent to ltm
- argue ltm is a passive store that holds previously learned material to be used by stm when needed

Question 2

The central executive

what it does, point about attentional demands

Answer 2

• drives the working memory system and allocates data to the other components (slave systems)
• also deals with cognitive tasks e.g. decision making, reasoning, problem solving
• automated tasks provide less attentional demands on the central executive leaving us free to perform other tasks
• e.g. someone’s who’s driven for 10 years will find driving has become an automated task that doesn’t take as many attentional demands compared to when they were learning to drive, so now they can talk or listen to radio when driving

Question 3

The phonological loop

what it is, sub components

Answer 3

• component of the working memory that deals with spoken and written material
• has two sub components; phonological store and articulatory loop
• phonological store/ inner ear is linked to speech perception and holds info in speech-based form (i.e. spoken words) for 1-2 seconds
• articulatory loop/ inner voice is linked to speech production and used to rehearse and store verbal info from phonological store- this allows for maintenance rehearsal

Question 4

The visuo-spatial sketchpad

what it does, two sub components

Answer 4

• stores and processes information in a visual or spatial form and is used for navigation
• referred to as the ‘inner eye’; has two sub components
• visual cache stores visual material about form and colour
• inner scribe handles spatial relationships

Question 5

The episodic buffer

why it was added, capacity

Answer 5

• baddeley added since he realised the model needed a general storage component to operate properly
• this was because the slave systems only deal with processing and temporary storage of specific types of info, and the central executive has no storage capacity at all
• has limited capacity, integrating info from the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad, as well as from the LTM