Psychology essay 6

Describe and evaluate the working model of memory

The working memory model (WMM) is an explanation of STM only. The WMM is concerned with that part of the mind that is active when we are manipulating information, for example when working on a maths problem or playing chess.

The model consists of four main components; each different in terms of capacity and coding.

1. The Central Executive is the main component of the WMM. It decides what we pay attention to, makes decisions and allocates tasks to the slave systems (the other three components). The CE has very little no storage capacity and can only pay attention to a limited number of stimuli.

2. The Phonological Loop deals with auditory information e.g. spoken or written material and preserves the order in which the information arrives. Coding is acoustic (sound based). The phonological loop plays a key role in the learning of vocabulary, particularly in the early childhood years. It may also be vital for learning a second language.

Baddeley (1986) divided the phonological loop into two parts:

• The phonological store (inner ear) is often referred to as the ‘inner ear’ because it holds speech based information such as words we hear for 1-2 sec.

• The articulatory control process (inner voice) silently repeats the words from the PS on a loop to prevent them from decaying.

3. The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad stores and manipulates visual information from the eyes or long-term memory. If you imagine an object and then picture it rotating, you are using your visuo-spatial sketchpad. Use your VSS to solve the problem

Logie (1995) sub-divided the VSS into:

• The visual cache – stores visual information e.g., shape and colour.

• The inner scribe - deals with spatial and movement information, e.g. how far or close objects are in relation to each other.

244. The Episodic Buffer

In 2000, Baddeley added a third slave system to the WMM, the episodic buffer. The episodic buffer is dedicated to integrating visual, spatial, and verbal information from the different slave systems into a single unit of information. For example, a scene from a TV programme will comprise of visual information, speech, sounds and movement.

The episodic buffer joins this information together into a memory episode.

The episodic buffer has a limited capacity of about four chunks (Baddeley 2012).

The buffer provides a link between LTM and working member to LTM as it is able to assess information for LTM about time and order e.g. ‘when’ and ‘where’ things occurred.

Research support for the Model

(Point) A strength of the Working Memory Model is supporting research.

(Evidence) Baddeley (1976) conducted an experiment in which participants performed two tasks at the same time (dual task technique):

Procedure: Condition 1: Participants performed two visual tasks at the same time (tracking a light and describing the angles on a hollow letter F). Condition 2:Participants tracked the light whilst performing a verbal task at the same time.

Findings: Ps found it more difficult to do two visual tasks at the same time, as both tasks were competing for the same component of the WMM, showing their different roles.

(Link) These controlled findings support the idea that STM has more than one component.

Clinical evidence supports the Model

(Point) The WMM is further supported by clinical evidence.

(Evidence) Shallice & Warrington (1970) studied KF, whose brain was injured in a motorcycle accident. Although KF’s memory for verbal material was poor, his memory for visual information was unaffected. In terms of the working memory model this can be explained by damage to the articulatory loop but with the sketchpad remaining intact.

(Link) This case study supports that STM has more than one store in real life situations.

The Model has many practical applications

(Point) Another strength of the WMM is that it has positive practical applications.

(Evidence) WMM is used to help children who have an impaired working memory. For example, Alloway developed several methods to improve the WM of children with ADHD. These including breaking instructions down into individual steps and asking the child to repeat instructions.

(Link) These applications strengthen WMM in its validity in relation to the real world.

Main component is vague

(Point) A weakness of the WMM is that the explanation of the central executive is too vague.

(Evidence) The central executive is the most important component of working memory, but it is the one we know least about. Eslinger & Damasio (1985) argue that the notion of the central executive is wrong and that there are probably several components within the central executive. For example in the case study of EVR, he performed well on tests requiring reasoning but showed poor judgement.

(Link) This Implies that the central executive is not unitary and its explanation is too simplistic

The working memory model (WMM) is an explanation of short term memory (STM) only. There are 4 main components- the central executive (the main component which decided what we pay attention to and allocates tasks to the other slave systems (components)), the phonological loop (deals with auditory information, coding is acoustic, holds information for 1-2 seconds), the visuo-spatial sketchpad (stores and manipulates visual information, made up of the visual cache and the inner scribe), and the episodic buffer (integrates visual, spatial and verbal information from the other slave systems into a single unit of information

One strength of the working memory model is supporting evidence from Baddely, who conducted an experiment using a dual task technique. In condition 1, participants performed two visual tasks at the same time (tracking a light and describing the angles on a hollow letter F) and in condition 2, participants tracked the light whilst performing a verbal task at the same time. The participants found it harder to do two visual tasks at the same time, as both tasks were competing for the same component of the WMM, showing their different roles. This supports the idea that the STM has more than one store.

Another strength of the working memory model is case study evidence. Shallice and Warrington studied KF, whose brain was injured in a motorcycle accident. Although his memory for verbal material was poor, his memory for visual information was unaffected. This can be explained by damage to the articulatory loop but no damage to the visuo-spatial sketchpad, leaving it unaffected. This again supports the idea that the STM has more than one store.

However, one weakness of the WMM is that the explanation of the central executive may be too vague. The central executive is the most important component of working memory model, however it is the one we know the least about. Eslinger and Damasio argue that the central executive is wrong and that there are likely several components within the central executive. An example of this is with the case study of EVR, he performed well on tasks requiring reasoning but not on those that required judgement. This implies that the central executive is not unitary and that its explanation is too simplistic.

.L.