WMM

• What does Baddeley mean by working memory?

  The active processing of information in STM. IT involves storing and using information to perform immediate cognitive tasks.
• Ways in which the WMM can be seen as a better explanation of STM than than the MSM

  WMM can explain the case of K.F (k.f had poor verbal STM but good visual STM).

  The WMM can explain the performance when dual tasking (recognising existence of different stores in STM)
• The Central Executive SAS

  Supervisary Attentional System

  It has a supervisory role. It receives arriving info from sensory register and/or long term memory and selectively pays attention to it. It's limited attentional capacity so has to decide when to divide attention and switch attention between different inputs. Allocates resources/slave systems to process the particular task/ info
• phonological loop

  Processes auditory info and maintains, e.g whether words occurred before or after each other. The PL is similar to the rehearsal system of the MSM, with a limited capacity determined by the amount of info that can be spoken out loud in about 2 seconds. as it's mainly an acoustic store, confusions occur with similar sounding words.
• Baddeley 1986 further divided the PL into 2 sub components:


  Primary acoustic store - acts as an inner ear, temporarily stored words recently heard/ read.

  Articulatory process - acts as an inner voice. Keeps info in the phonological store, preventing decay, through sub-vocal repetition of info
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)


  Used when performing and panning spatial tasks. E.g walking from one classroom to the hub or recalling your route home. Limited capacity. It holds and temporarily stores visual items the relationships between them.
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS) made of 2 sub components:

  Visual cache - 'inner eye' temporarily stored info relating to visual items such as colour.

  An 'inner scribe' - retain info about movement and spatial relationships between objects
• Episodic buffer 2000

  It's modality free, means it can receive, process and remember different types of info. Needed as PL and VS have little storage so episodic buffer holds this info.
• It's vague - CE

  too simplistic and untestable. It is unclear what the CE is and how it operates to supervise the slave systems or its exact role in attention.
• Research support - CE

  Baddeley found that PP's had difficulty generating lists of random numbers while simultaneously switching between pressing numbers and letters on a keyboard. Findings suggests that the two tasks were competing for limited attentional resources from the CE, which supports that the CE has limited attentional capacity
• Research support for WMM - KF


  KF had a motor bike accident which impaired his STM. When tested he had a good visual memory but extremely poor auditory memory. This supports that stm is made of multiple components - whereby info is processed and rehearsed by different slave systems. One which deals with auditory info and another Visuo - spatial supporting the WMM
• Research support for WMM - Brain Imaging

  Paulescu et al 1993 recorded PET scans of brain when PP's were performing either verbal tasks or visual ones. Found different areas of the brain were active during each task. This supports scientific support for WMM as it highlights the distinction between slave systems within STM and that these are localised to different areas of the brain.
• Evidence from dual task studies

  Baddeley found that when PPs do visual tasks e.g. tracking a moving point of light and describing the shape of the letter f their performance is often impaired. However, when one task is verbal, and the other spatial performance is often better. By recognising the 2 distinct slave systems, both with limited capacity the WMM can account for the performances when completing dual tasks.
• A more valid model of memory in comparison to the MSM

  Often lab experiments. Use of artificial procedures e.g. tracking a moving dot and describing the letter f which lacks mundane realism. Doesn't contribute to understanding WM in real life. E.g. talking on the phone while reading an email at work. Findings lack ecological validity and may not be generalising for helpful when understanding WM in real life environments/ situations.