WMM

• What memory store is WMM


  STM
• WMM capacity 


  limited
• WORKING MEMORY a system for temporarily storing/holding information and managing/manipulating the information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning and comprehension
• Central executive - 

  Drives the whole system acts as the supervisor monitoring incoming information, makes decisions and allocates slave subs-systems to tasks (is an attentional process)
• Phonological loop; PL

  Deals with spoken and written material split into the phonological store and articulatory process (maintenance rehearsal) written works must be converted to spoken code before processed
• Articulatory process In PL is


  Inner voice
• Phonological store in PL is


  Inner ear
• Viso-spatial sketchpad VSS

  Stores and processes visual and spatial information used for navigation 
• Logie 1995 subdivided VSS

  Robert logie subdivided VSS into two components in 1995: Visual cache and inner scribe
• Visual cache:

  Sometimes referred to as inner eye, this part of VSS stores information about form and colour ie images
• Inner scribe:

  This part of VSS stores spatial and movement information, it records the arrangement of objects in visual field and allows us to walk around without bumping into things. It is used to rehearse visual information from the visual cache.
• LH FARAH 1988

  Road accident causes LH to have poor performance when asked to remember colour and shapes 

  But performed well at tasks relating to spatial information

  • colour + shape is VSS (viso-spatial sketchpad 
  • Spatial information is also VSS?

  This challenges WMM 
• Buffer

  temporarily hold information 
• Episodic

  integrated chunks of information 
• Episodic buffer

  responsible for linking/binding together information from all other elements of working memory (PL & VSS) with information relating to time and order. so things occur in continuing sequence like book or movie.
• The 1974 WMM by Baddeley and Hitch is an explanation of STM. It is concerned with the mental space that is active when we temporarily store and manipulate information which we hold in our memory simultaneously e.g. when doing mental arithmetic.
• The WMM assumes there are different slave systems rather than a unitary system for memory and is made up of three components the central executive, the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad. All of these components have limited capacity
• Each of the different components of the WMM has its own specific function. The central executive acts as a supervisor, directing attention and allocating slave systems to tasks.
• Each of the different components of the WMM has its own specific function. The central executive acts as a supervisor, directing attention and allocating slave systems to tasks.
• The Visuo Spatial Sketchpad (VSS) subsystem can process visual input such as images or light, and spatial information such as direction. It can temporarily store visual and spatial information when required but has limited capacity, which is about three or four objects.
• The Phonological Look (PL) processes auditory and written information. It is subdivided into the phonological store, which temporarily holds sounds, and the articulatory process, which allows for maintenance rehearsal of sounds. It is believed to have a limited capacity of two seconds
• Over time the WMM has been developed and changed. In 1995 Robert Logie subdivided the VSS into two component parts: Sometimes referred to as the inner eye, the visual cache processes information about form and colour i.e. images. The Inner scribe records the arrangement of objects in the visual field and allows us to walk around without bumping into things. It is used to rehearse visual information from the visual cache
• Additionally the Episodic Buffer was added in 2000, which links/binds together information from all other elements of working memory (Phonological loop and VSS) with information relating to time and order so that things occur in a continuing sequence, like a story from a book or movie.
• Baddeley used a total amount of 72 men and women in his study. The group were from the Applied Psychology Research Unit in Cambridge University.
• Baddeley used a total amount of 72 men and women in his study. The group were from the Applied Psychology Research Unit in Cambridge University.
• Words were presented on a screen (one word per slide for 3 seconds) before showing the next word (out of 10 words). Immediately after, participants took part in an interference task that would involve their STM where digits were read out at a 1 second rate and participants were then allowed 8 seconds to write down the correct sequence.
• In the lab experiment, words were presented on a screen (one word per slide for 3 seconds) before showing the next word (out of 10 words). Immediately after, participants took part in an interference task  after which,  they were allowed one minute to write out the 10 word sequence
• Four trials were carried out using this procedure and the participants get better each time. After the 4th trial the participants had a 15 minute break and were asked to perform an unrelated interference task which involved copying digits.
• The participants were then asked to recall the word sequence again however this trial is unexpected. The longer interference task was developed to ensure the final retest was testing LTM and not STM
• Baddeley’s aim was to investigate whether the Long Term Memory encodes acoustically (based on sound) or semantically (based on meaning).

  Baddeley found out that List A (the acoustically similar list) was initially harder to learn however this did improve. He also found out that List C (the semantically similar list) had a much worse recall at the unexpected retest of the control list. To conclude Baddeley found that the STM encodes acoustically and the LTM encodes semantically.
• Conclusion Baddeley’s study used controlled scientific procedures which meant he could conclude that encoding operates differently in STM and LTM.

  However, the findings have limited generalisability to real life because of the artificial nature of the laboratory-based procedures and tasks. Despite this, the study was an important stepping stone to a deeper understanding of memory because it highlighted the separation of STM and LTM. This allowed Baddeley to focus on STM in his working memory model.