Memory - The Working Model Of Memory

Question 1

What is the working model of memory?

Answer 1

An explanation that sees STM as an active store holding several pieces of information simultaneously

Question 2

What does the working model of memory do?

Answer 2

It’s active when we are temporarily storing & manipulating information e.g. playing chess

Question 3

Who proposed the working model of memory?

Answer 3

Baddeley & Hitch

Question 4

What are the four main components in the working model of memory?

Answer 4

The central executive
The phonological loop
The visuo-spatial sketchpad
The episodic buffer

Question 5

What is the central executive?

Answer 5

An attentional process that that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to tasks

Question 6

What is the capacity of the central executive?

Answer 6

limited

Question 7

What is the coding of the central executive?

Answer 7

tbc

Question 8

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 8

A slave system that deals with auditory information and preserves the order of which the information arrives

Question 9

What are the 2 subdivisions of the phonological loop?

Answer 9

The phonological store
The articulatory process

Question 10

What is the phonological store?

Answer 10

The store for the words that are heard

Question 11

What is the articulatory process?

Answer 11

The process that allows maintenance rehearsal

Question 12

What is the capacity of the phonological loop?

Answer 12

2 seconds worth of what you can say

Question 13

What is the coding for the phonological loop?

Answer 13

Acoustic

Question 14

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 14

A slave system that stores visual/spatial information & the physical relationship of items when required

Question 15

Give an example of using the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 15

Being asked to visualise how many windows are in your house

Question 16

What are the two subdivisions of the visuo-spatial sketchpad & who created them?

Answer 16

Logie subdivided it into:
The visual cache
The inner scribe

Question 17

What is the visual cache?

Answer 17

A store for visual data

Question 18

What is the inner scribe?

Answer 18

A store for the information of objects in a visual field/physical relationship of items

Question 19

What is the capacity of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 19

3/4 objects

Question 20

What is the coding of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 20

visual

Question 21

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 21

The 3rd slave system & newest one (added in 2000)
A temporary store for visual, spatial & verbal information processed by other stores & maintains a sense of time sequencing (recording of events)

Question 22

What is the capacity of the episodic buffer?

Answer 22

4 chunks

Question 23

What is the coding of the episodic buffer?

Answer 23

TBC

Question 24

What are some advantages of the WMM?

Answer 24

research support - Shallice & Warrington -> KF (had brain damage & had difficulty processing verbal info but not visual info suggesting damage to his phonological loop but the rest of his memory was intact) - supports the existence of a separate visual & acoustic store

dual task performance - Baddeley et al -> participants had more difficulty performing 2 visual tasks (tracking light & describing the letter F) than 1 visual & auditory as both visual compete for the same slave system whereas 1 v & 1 a don’t - supports existence of visuo-spatial sketchpad & explains how easy it is to complete these separate tasks

the word length effect - Baddeley et al -> people find it more difficult to remember a long list of words than shorter ones as there is finite space for rehearsal so repeating the longer words inhibits rehearsal but disappears when someone is given an articulatory suppression tasks (ties up the articulatory process) - supports the existence of the phonological loop

Question 25

What are some disadvantages of the WMM?

Answer 25

counterpoint (KF) -> evidence from brain damaged patients may not be reliable (they’ve gone through trauma & cant be generalised)

Lack of clarity over the central executive -> Baddeley ‘the central executive is the most important but least understood component of the working memory’ - needs to be more specific than just an ‘attentional’ process so the WMM hasn’t been fully explained