The Working Memory Model

Who made the Working Memory Model?

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

What are the 4 major components of the WMM?

central executive, phonological loop, episodic buffer, visuospacial sketchpad

What is the central executive in the WMM?

supervisory component that has overall control over the slave components

Is the capacity of the central executive limited or unlimited?

Limited

How does the central executive code?

Modality free

How does the phonological loop store information?

In speech format (acoustically)

What is the duration of the phonological loop?

2 seconds

What are the two components within the phonological loop?

Articulatory process and phonological store

What does the phonological store do?

Stores the words you hear

What does the articulatory process do?

Rehearses verbal information, speech production and increases duration of PS

What is the episodic buffer?

connection between working and long term memory which was added by Baddeley in 2000

What does the episodic buffer do?

Coordinates and manipulates information from all three other stores as well as from the LTM

What is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Mental map that holds information in images

How does the visuospatial sketchpad code?

visually

How does the study of KF support the WMM?

They found out that KF could remember images and events he's seen, and as suggested by the WMM, visual and verbal information are stored separately suggesting his visuospacial sketchpad wasn't affected by the motorcycle accident

How does Robbins research on a game of chess support the WMM?

- there was a far greater reduction in scores of accurate recall of chess positions when the pp's VSS was occupied rather than when the PL was occupied

- this is due to chess involving the CE and VSS and not the PL

- evidence for the importance of the CE making complex decisions

How is knowing so little about the CE a weakness of the WMM?

- most important component, yet has the least amount of evidence to support it

- CE is difficult to falsify as it's hard to know whether the slave components are carrying out a task or if the CE has taken over

- difficult to know whether CE exists, weakening the validity of the model

How does the study of EVR by Eslinger and Damasio weaken the WMM?

- involves a man who's behaviour changed after a tumour was removed

- his cognitive functioning was unaffected but his social decision-making was impaired, both of which are controlled by the CE

- there must be a more complex explanation for this component, there may be separate stores within the CE