Working memory model

• Who Devised the Working Memory Model?

  Baddley and Hitch
• What is the Working Memory Model?

  An explanation of STM as an active store that holds several different types of info in different sub-units
• What is the Central Executive?

  Attentional process that monitors incoming data. Allocates data to certain slave systems. Has limited processing capacity.
• Evaluation of CE

  Little is known about it - Most important but least understood (Baddley)

  Better understood as attention rather than a memory store.
• What is the Phonological Loop?

  Deals w/ auditory info, both written and spoken. Preserves the order info arrives. 2 Parts:

  Phonological Store

  Articulatory Process
• What is the Phonological Store? (Primary Acoustic Store)

  Stores words heard.
• What is the Articulatory Process?

  Allows for maintainence rehearsal/sub-vocal repetition.

  Capacity of this is about 2 seconds.

  Linked to speech production.
• Evaluation(s) of Phonological Loop

  Baddley demonstrated that people find it more difficult to remember a list of long words than short words. Only 2 seconds in store. So can't repeat if being vocal - Two stores in it.

  PET scan shows different activities when doing verbal tasks.
• What is the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad?


  Stores visual or spatial information. Helps navigate around & interact with their environment. Through mental pictures.

  Two Parts:

  Visual Cache

  Inner Scribe
• What is the Visual Cache?

  Stores Visual Data - Form and Colour.
• What is the inner scribe?

  Information about the Physical Relationship between items. Arrangment of objects in visual field.
• Evaluation of Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

  Dual task Performance- supports the existence of the VSS. -->

  The pp had difficulty doing two visual tasks other than visual and verbal- different slave systems.

  
  

  PET scans show them as separate stores.
• What is the Episodic Buffer?

  Added by Baddely later on (2000)

  A temporary store- intergrating information from other sub systems rather than seperate strands

  It's a bridge between working memory and LTM.
• Positive evaluation of Working Memory Model:

  • real life application
  • KF case study: after accident, only verbal information was affected, not visual
  • research support + empirical evidence
  • brain studies show phonological loop is in left brain and visuospatial sketchpad is in right brain
  • counterpoint: conflicting evidence
• Negative evaluation of Working Memory Model:

  • Lieberman: blind people still have very good spatial awareness, visuospatial sketchpad should be separated
  • only includes STM, does not explain other memory store processes
  • CE is too vague
• What is the structure of the working memory model?

  Central Executive runs:

  • Visuospatial sketchpad
  • Episodic buffer
  • Phonological loop
  • Made of phonological store and articulatory process