working model memory

• The Working Memory Model Diagram

  
• What components does the working memory model consists of?


  - Central Executive

  - Phonological Loop

  - Visuospatial Sketchpad

  - Episodic Buffer
• Functions of the central executive?

  - monitors incoming information in all sensory forms

  
  

  - decides what working memory pays attention to

  
  

  - directs information to the slave systems and collects responses
• What is the phonological loop?

  - A slave system that deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which the information arrives.

  
  

  - Temporary storage system for holding auditory information in a speech based form.

  
• Function of the articulatory process?

  - Keeps information in the phonological store through repetition.

  
  

  - Allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds or words to keep them in working memory while they are needed).
• What is the Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS) ?

  - A temporary memory system for holding visual and spatial info

  
  

  - Deals with visual and spatial information - The inner eye

  
  

  - Helps the individual navigate and interact with their physical environment.

  
• Function of the inner scribe?

  - Records the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

  
  

  - Rehearses and transfers information in the visual cache to the central executive.
• What is the episodic buffer?

  - Added by Baddeley later on (2000)

  
  

  - Acts as a 'backup' (temporary) store for information which communicates with both long term memory and the slave system components of working memory.
• Functions of the episodic buffer?

  - Retrieves information from long term memory

  
  

  - Integrates information from Central Executive, Phonological Loop and Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad into short term memory when working memory requires it.
• AO3 support from case studies

  • after KF brain injury, he had poor STM ability for auditory information but still processed visual information
  • his immediate recall of letters and digits was better when reading them(visually), compared when they were read to him (acoustic)
  • KF phonological loop was damaged but VSS was intact
  • findings support the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores
• AO3 dual task performance

  • studies support the separate existence of the VSS
  • baddeley 1975
  • participants carried out visual and verbal tasks out the same time
  • their performance on each was similar to when they carried out tasks separately
  • when both tasks were visual or verbal , performance declined
  • both tasks competed for the same subsystem
  • theres no competition when performing a verbal and visual task together
  • which shows theres a separate subsystem that process visual input VSS and verbal PL
• AO3 lack of clarity over the nature of the CE

  • baddeley 2003, recognised the CE is the most important but least understood component of WM
  • CE needs to be more clearly specified, not just attention
  • other psychologists believe that CE consists of separate subcomponents
  • the lack of research of the CE and the contradictory theories challenges the intergrity of the WMM