Working Memory Model

Who devised the Working Memory Model?

Baddeley and Hitch

What store of memory does the WMM focus on?

short term memory

What is the function of the central executive?

filters information and allocates resources to tasks

What is the capacity of the central executive?

limited capacity - 1 strand of information

What is the coding of the central executive?

modality free

What are the two slave systems in the WMM?

phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad

What are the two parts of the phonological loop?

phonological store and articulatory loop

What does the phonological store deal with?

words recently heard

What does the articulatory loop do?

retains info through sub-vocal repetition

What is the capacity of the phonological loop?

2 seconds

What is the coding of the phonological loop?

acoustic

What are the two parts of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

visual cache and inner scribe

What information does the visual cache store?

form and colour

What information does the inner scribe store?

physical relationships between objects

What is the capacity of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

3-4 chunks

What is the coding of the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

visual

When was the episodic buffer added to the WMM?

2000

What is the episodic buffer?

a general store, time sequencing

What is the capacity of the episodic buffer?

4 chunks

What is the coding of the episodic buffer?

modality free

What were the two conditions in the Gathercole and Baddeley study?

two visual tasks and a visual/verbal task

Briefly outline the procedure for the first condition in the Gathercole and Baddeley study.

had to follow a light whilst describing an angular letter and signifying where the angles were, then had to repeat this without a physical image of the letter

What did Gathercole and Baddeley find from their study?

a visual/verbal task was easier to do than two visual tasks

What did Gathercole and Baddeley conclude from their study?

visuo-spatial sketchpad has limited capacity as it cannot focus on both tasks

Briefly explain how the Gathercole and Baddeley study supports the WMM.

shows there must be separate systems for visual and verbal info, and shows how VSS is limited as two visual tasks were overwhelming

Briefly outline the Baddeley research which supports the idea of the articulatory loop.

easier to remember short words, less time to say them so can rehearse them more than longer words

How does Baddeley’s research into word length support the idea of an articulatory loop?

shows the time to say a word is more important than number of items - so phonological loop has capacity of 2 seconds

Give and outline one example of a case study that supports the WMM.

KF suffered accident and brain damage - poor memory of sounds but good visual memory

How does the KF study support the WMM?

systems for acoustic and visual info are separate - phonological loop was damaged but not VSS

Briefly outline Braver’s study into the central executive.

scanned brains while completing central executive tasks, more activity in left prefrontal cortex, activity increased as tasks got harder

How does Braver’s research support the idea of the central executive in the WMM?

shows central executive exists and is separate to slave systems as different areas of brain were used

Give two brief counter-arguments to Braver’s research into the central executive.

unobservable so no physical proof of central executive, and role of CE might be more about attention than memory

Give three similarities between the MSM and WMM.

both unobservable, both have case study support, both describe coding/capacity/duration

Give three differences between the MSM and WMM.

WMM focuses on STM, MSM is more reductionist, WMM says STM is both acoustic and visual not just acoustic