Working memory model

Cards (11)

    1. Central Executive
    2. Visuo-spacial Sketchpad
    3. Visual Cache
    4. Inner Scribe
    5. Episodic Buffer
    6. Phonological Loop
    7. Articulatory Loop
    8. Phonological Store
  • Working Memory Model. Baddeley and Hitch (1974).
    ‘The MSM is too simple, it assumes that the STM is one store‘
    The WMM focuses on the STM and the idea that is made of multiple components. These are: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spacial sketchpad, episodic buffer.
  • Central Executive - an attentional process monitoring incoming data, making decisions and allocating slave systems. It is not limited to one type of coding. Data arrives from out senses but cannot e held for very long, the CE has a limited capacity.
  • WMM Phonological Loop - a slave system dealing with spoken and written information. It has a limited capactity, 2s per item. It codes acoustically as it deals with auditory information.
    Phonological store - holds the words heard in the inner ear.
    Articulatory process/loop - allows maintenance rehearsal. Holds information seen / heard and silently repeats them in order to keep in working memory.
  • WMM Visuo-Spacial Sketchpad - a slave system dealing with visual and spatial information. It has a limited capacity of 3-4 objects. Codes visually, creating a mental picture of our surroundings both visually and spatially.
    Inner scribe - records arrangements of objects / special arrangements.
  • WMM Episodic Buffer - a slave system integrating all types of episodic information, acting as a buffer between the LTM and WMM components. It has a limited capacity of 4 chunks. It binds information from components of the WMM and to create “episodes” of information.
  • There is support for the WMM from Patient KF, who was injured in a motorcycle accident. He was able o recall information from his LTM but had issues with this STM. He could remember visual images like faces but not sounds. This suggests there is at least two components of the STM, like the WMM says.
  • An issue with the WMM is that it only focuses on the STM, and the link between the WMM and LTM is not fully explained. The WMM provides a detailed description of our STM but no information on how information is processed and transferred from the STM to the LTM. Therefore, the WMM is an incomplete model of memory and other theories/models are required to gain a complete picture.
  • WMM research support. Baddeley eat al (1975) asked ppts to perform two tasks simultaneously. For the first task, ppts were shown 2 statements - A and B - and were given a second statement (eg did statement A come before B), they then had to answer true or false asap. They were also asked to complete 1 of 3 conditions.
    • repeat THE THE THE over
    • say random digits out loud
    • no 2nd task
    results; conditions 1 and 3 did not affect task 1 but condition 2 made ppts perform worse.
  • There is research for the WMM’s phonological loop. Baddeley et al (1976) conducted an experiment where a group ppts were presented with a list of short words to learn, and another group of ppts had a list of long words. The first group found it easier as they were learning a list of shorter words. This shows support for the duration of the PL (2s), the longer the word, the longer it takes to memorise.
  • WMM Components.
    Central executive:
    • controls slave systems, boss.
    • limited capacity
    • coding - any sensory information
    Phonological loop:
    • temporary storage system for verbal info
    • limited capacity
    • acoustic information
    Visuo-spacial sketchpad
    • temporary storage system for visual and spacial information.
    • limited capacity
    • visual and spacial information