working memory model

• what is the phonological loop

  a store that deals with auditory info and is split into two conponents; the primary acoustic store and the articulatory loop
• what is the primary acoustic store

  a store that holds auditory memory traces that decay after a few seconds, forgetting is by trace decay
• what is the articulatory loop

  an area that revives memory traces by rehearsing them sub vocally
• what is the visuospatial sketchpad

  holds the info we see, is used to manipulate spatial info, is limited in capacity to around 3 or 4 objects and is divided into two parts; the visual cache and the inner scribe
• visual cache

  stores info about form and colour
• inner scribe


  deals with retrieval and rehearsal
• biological evidence for the splits between visual cache and inner-scribe from patients with right hemisphere damage, one type of patient has normal visual memory but damaged visual attention, the other has the opposite
• what does the central executive do

  puts info from different sources into one episode, moves between tasks, operates retrieval strategies and controls selective attention
• what is the central executive

  supervisory system that controls cognitive processes
• what was added after?

  the episodic buffer
• what does the episodic buffer do?

  provides time sequencing for visual,. verbal and spatial info, has limited capacity
• why was the episodic buffer added

  to be a way for the phonological loop and the articulatory system to interact
• neurophysical evidence for working memory model

  scans show tasks involving visual objects activate an area in the left hemisphere and tasks involving spatial info activate areas in the right, evidence for separate stores, scans are objective and replicable, high reliability
• issue with experiments

  Steyvers and Hemmer, memory experiments lack ecological validity
• strength of wmm

  can explain why dual task performance occurs, why when two spatial tasks are being carried out they are found to be more difficult than doing one spatial and one visual
• weakness of wmm

  model has been added to since, episodic buffer added, shows how the original model was inadequate and an invalid explanation of memory