Working Memory Model Flashcards
(13 cards)
Why was the Working Memory model introduced
-The Working memory model was introduced by Baddeley and Hitch to replace the STM memory store of the MSM due to criticsims of the STM
Criticisms of the short term memory store (MSM)
-One criticism of the STM is that it must be more complex than a single unitary store that only exists to pass information to the LTM
-Another criticism of the STM is that rather than it being a passive process that passes information to the LTM, it is an active process that works on and combines multiple different types of information
Central Executive
-The central executive (head of the system) pays attention to sense information and filters it before passing it to the sub-systems
-The central executive has a very limited capacity (around 4 items) and can only work on one type of information at a time; however it can switch between different types of information quickly
Phonological loop
-The phonological loop processes auditory information and can be split into two parts: The phonological store (inner ear) that holds
onto words recently heard, and the articulatory control process (inner voice) that is used for maintenance rehearsal (sub-vocal repetition)
-The phonological loop has a capacity of how much you can say in 2 seconds
Visuo-spatial sketchpad
The visuospatial sketchpad processes visual information (Inner eye) and can be split into two parts: visual cache; which is a passive store for form and colour, and the inner scribe; which is an active store for the relationship between objects in 3D space
-Visuospatial sketchpad has a capacity of around 3-4 items
Episodic Buffer
-The episodic buffer was introduced in 2000, as the working memory model needed a general store to hold onto and integrate information for the central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and long term memory
Research evidence for the separation of visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop Baddeley (1975)
-Baddeley (1970) asked participants to perform two visual tasks e.g tracking a moving light and describing the angles of the letter F at the same time, or asked them to perfrom a visual and verbal task at the same time
-It was found that perfromance was significantly better when completing tasks that used different processes e.g visual and verbal tasks
-This suggests that the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop exist as separate stores and that the visuospatial sketchpad can be overloaded with visual information
Case study for the separation of visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop (Shallice and Warrington 1970 KF)
-Shallice and Warrington (1970) conducted a case study on a patient called KF who had selective impairment to his verbal short-term memory, caused by a brain injury; however, KF’s visual short-term memory was fully functioning
-This suggests that the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop are separate stores that occur in different brain regions
FMRI studies by researchers into the existence of the episodic buffer (visual and verbal tasks separate or integrated)
-Using FMRI scans, researchers asked participants to perform tasks with equal amounts of verbal and visual information
-In one condition, the verbal and visual information is separate, and in the other, the information is integrated
-The fMRI scans, showed greater activation in the pre-frontal cortex when the information is integrated
-This suggests that the episodic buffer exists and is located in the pre frontal cortex
-Additional evaluation of the central executive (negative)
-The central executive has been criticised for being too simplistic, as it does not provide a full explanation of its function and cannot to be tested fully
-Baddeley and Hitch later added the episodic buffer to try and solve this problem
-Additional evaluation of psychological research into the WMM (positive because high internal validity negative because of low external validity)
-Much of the psychological research done on the Working memory model has been conducted in controlled lab experiments, this controls extraneous variables and means that the results have a high internal validity
-However, they also have low external validity, as the tasks used were highly artificial and lacked mundane realism, as they were tasks people are unlikely to perform in real life; therefore it is difficult to generalise this research to the wider population
Positive evaluation of Working Memory model as a batter explanation of STM than MSM
-The Multi store model of memory describes short term memory as a passive store, while the WMM seems to more accurately describe memory as an active process.
-Researchers tend to use the working memory model instead of short term memory
Negative evaluation of WMM (not directly observable)
-A criticism of WMM and other memory models is that they are not directly observable; researchers have to make inferences based off of observed behaviour from experimentation
-The inferences are effectively educated guesses so may be incorrect
