4. The working memory model

    Cards (12)

    • Baddley and Hitch (1974) -

      - Developed the working memory model
    • The working memory model - AO1
      - A representation of the STM. It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using subunits co-ordinated by a central decision-making role.
    • Central executive - AO1
      - Supervisory role
      - Monitors Incoming data
      - Focuses and divides our limited attention and allocates 'slave systems to tasks
      - Limited capacity
      - Does not store information
    • Phonological loop - AO1
      - First Slave system
      - Deals with auditory information
      - Coding - acoustic
      - Preserves the order in which information arrives
      - Capacity - 2 seconds worth what you can say
    • Phonological loop subdivided into - AO1
      1- Phonological store - words we hear
      2- Articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal
    • Visuo-Spatical Sketchpad - AO1
      - Second slave system
      - Stores visual and spatial information
      - Baddley (2003) - Limited capacity of 3 to 4 items
    • Visuospatial sketchpad subdivided into - AO1
      - Robert Logie (1995) - subdivided this store into
      1- Visual cashe - stores visual data
      2- Inner scribe - record the arrangement of objects in the visual field
    • Episodic buffer - AO1
      - Third slave system
      - Added by Baddley in 2000
      - Bring together materials from the other sub-systems into a single memory
      - To achieve a time-sequencing
      - Produces a single memory which all the verbal, spatial and visual information from the other slave systems
      - Links the working memory to the LTM
      - Baddley (2012) - Limited capacity of 4 chunks
    • Clinical evidence 😊 - AO3
      - Shallice and Warrington( 1970) - case study on patient KF
      - brain injury
      - He had poor STM ability for auditory sounds but could process visual information just fine
      - Recall of letters and digits was better when he read them (visual) than when they were read to him (auditory)
      - His phonological loop was damaged, but his VSS was intact
    • CP to clinical evidence 🙁- AO3
      - It is unclear whether KF had any other cognitive impairments
      - Which might have impacted his performance on memory tasks
      - Injury was caused by a motorcycle accident
      - Trauma involved may have affected his cognitive performance apart from his brain injury
    • Dual-task performance 😊- AO3
      - Baddley (1975) - participants carried out visual and verbal tasks at the same time - dual tasks
      - Performance was similar to when tasks were carried out separately
      - But when they were asked to perform both visual tasks performance declined substantially
      - Both Visual tasks were competing for the same slave system - VSS
      - There is no competition when we're performing separate visual and verbal tasks
      Separate slave systems for visual (VSS) and verbal (PL)
    • Nature of the central executive - 😊
      - Lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive
      - Baddley (2003) - recognised this when he said thet the central executive was the most important but the least understood component of the working memory
      - Some psychologists consist of separate components
      - An unsatisfactory component and challenged the integrity of WMM