the working memory model

who put the WMM forward?

baddeley & hitch

what are the 4 key components of the WMM?

• central executive

• phonological loop

• visuospatial sketchpad

• episodic buffer

what is the central executive?

• directs attention to tasks

• allocates resources

• limited capacity

• takes data from the senses or LTM

what is the supporting research evidence for central executive?

hitch & baddeley - dual task performance

what is the phonological loop?

• deals with auditory information

• preserves the order of information

• limited capacity

• divided into phonological store & articulatory process

what is the supporting research evidence for the phonological loop?

shallice & warrington - KF - bad STM of audio but not visual

what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

• used to plan spatial tasks

• visual info temporarily stored here

what is the supporting research evidence for the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

farch et al - LH - performed better on spatial tasks than visual

what is the episodic buffer?

• general store of visual and acoustic

• limited capacity

• integrates information from the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad

• maintains a sense of time sequencing

• sends information to LTM

what is the supporting research evidence for the episodic buffer?

baddeley - added this recognising the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad tends to specific information

what are the strengths of the WMM?

• was developed to account for dual task performance and is evidenced by baddeley and hitch

• evidence from brain damaged patients - shallice and warrington - KT - forgot more audio than visual/spatial info

• neuroscanning evidence - Braver et al - positive correlation between increasing cognitive load processed by CE and increasing levels of activation in prefrontal cortex - supports that CE allocates tasks to slave systems + limited capacity

what are the weaknesses of the WMM?

• the central executive is very vague - e.g., ’process’ is not precisely defined - CE may be made up of several sub-components - lack of comprehension

• evidence from brain-damaged patients is not representative of the general population

what is the mcgurk effect?

when there is a conflict between visual speech and auditory speech

what is the capacity of the VSS?

4-5 chunks [Baddeley]

what was Baddeley & Hitch’s dual task performance study?

• dual task paradigm

• asked pps to do 2 tasks that would use VSS either separately or at the same time

• task A - use a pointer to track a point of light

• task B - imagine an F and mentally move round the edge of the letter

• found pps were able to perform separate tasks without difficulty but performance impaired when done together