WMM

Who made the WMM

Baddeley and Hitch

What does the WMM show

How the STM is organised and how it functions

What are the 4 parts of the WMM

1) Central executive

2) Phonological loop

3) Visuo-spatial sketchpad

4) Episodic buffer

What is the central executive

The component that coordinates the activities of the 3 subsystems in memory. It does not store information

What is the phonological loop

One of the subsystems that deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which we hear things

What are the two units of the phonological loop and what do they do

1) The phonological store - stores the words you hear

2) Articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad

A subsystem that stores visual and spatial information. It only has a limited capacity

What are the two parts of the visio-spatial sketchpad and what do they do

1) The visual cache - stores visual data

2) The inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in visual field

What is the episodic buffer

A subsystem that is a temporary store for information. It maintains a sense of time sequence. It is a storage component of the central executive

What is the capacity of the episodic buffer

4 chunks, limited

What does the episodic buffer link working memory to

LTM and perception

What is a support evaluation point for WMM

Shallice and Warringtons study on KF who had a brain injury and poor STM ability for auditory information, however visual information processing was fine. Supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores - his phonological loop was damaged but visuo-spatial sketchpad intact

What is a counterpoint to the previous evaluation point

It is unclear if KF had any other cognitive impairments which may have affected memory performance. His injury was caused by a motorcycle accident which caused trauma - which may have caused the cognitive impariments.

What is a support evaluation point of the WMM

Studies of dual-task performance support the separate existence of visuo-spatial sketchpad. In Baddeley et al.’s study when participants carried out a dual task (visual and verbal) their performance was similar to when they carried out the tasks separate. However when they carried out two visual tasks together performance declined because both visual tasks compete for the same subsystem - whereas there is no competition when doing verbal and visual at the same time. Shows there are separate systems

What is a limitation evaluation point for the WMM

There is a lack of clarity with the central executive, Baddeley said it himself when he said it is the most important yet least understood part. Some psychologists believe there are subsystems of the CE. Shows the CE is an unsatisfactory component and challenges integrity of the WMM