working memory model

Question 1

what is the clinical evidence to support the WMM?

Answer 1

shallice and warrington studied patient KF who had a brain injury from a motorcycle accident. KF’s STM for auditory information was poor (PL), but he could still process visual info. Supports the WMM view that there a separate visual and acoustic memory

Question 2

what studies from investigating dual processing help support the WMM?

Answer 2

baddeley and hitch asked P’s to perform 2 tasks at once. a digit span test and verbal reasoning (true or false statements. as the number of digits increased. P’s took longer to answer the verbal reasoning question. the CE was in control of the verbal reasoning task. the PL was in control of the digit task. therefore must be separate systems that process visual and verbal processes

Question 3

why does the WMM lack validity?

Answer 3

studies done to support the model have lacked mundane realism, showing lack of external validity. this is because both visual tasks compete for the same subsystem (VSS). there is no competition with a verbal and visual task

Question 4

why does the central executive lack clarity?

Answer 4

baddeley said that the CE was the most important but least understood component of working memory model. must be more to CE than ‘attention’, it could be made up of separate stores. therefore the CE is an unsatisfactory component which challenges the integrity of the WMM