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The Working Memory Model
The Working Memory Model
Baddeley & Hitch 1974They felt that STM is not just one store but
a number of different stores.
Why?
1 store for visual processing, 1 store fro processing sounds.
The Working Memory Model
Question
What would you say about the CAPACITY of The Working Memory Model?
The Working Memory Model
Question
Why was the CAPACITY question not a good one?
How would you improve it?
EPISODIC BUFFER later added byBaddely as a general store whichEncompassed information from theVS,PS and LTM
Baddeley & Hitch 1974
Central ExecutiveActs like attention and draws on the
phonological loop or the visual spatial sketchpad.
Has a very limited capacity.Cant attend to too many things at a time.
Baddeley & Hitch 1974
Central ExecutiveRaise your hand.What has that got to do with the central
executive?
Baddeley & Hitch 1974
Phonological LoopHas a limited capacity.Deals with auditory information.Preserves the order of information.Called a loop because information goes
round and round in a loop.
Baddeley & Hitch 1974
Phonological LoopThink of TWO ways you can use your
phonological loop.
Baddeley & Hitch 1974
Baddeley further subdivided this loop into the:Phonological store
& anArticulatory process
Phonological store holds the words you hear. It is like an inner ear.
Articulatory process used for words that are seen or about to be said. These words are silently repeated (looped). It is like an inner voice.
Baddeley & Hitch 1974
Phonological loop used when learning new words.
Phonological store holds auditory data.
Baddeley & Hitch 1974
Visuo-spatial sketchpadVisual & spatial info is temporarily stored
here.Visual information is what things look like.Spatial information is the relationship
between things.Visuo-spatial sketchpad is used when you
have to plan a spatial task, or if you are engaged in a visual task.
Baddeley & Hitch 1974
Visuo-spatial sketchpadHow does your visuo-spatial sketch-pad
help you around your house in the dark?
Criticisms
PositivesThe model explains many observations,
e.g. it is easier to do 2 tasks that are different than 2 tasks that are similar.
The model explains the word-length effect.
Criticisms
X Negatives
X What is the central executive? The model says very little about it.
X It is too vague and doesn’t really explain anything.
X Psychologists feel that a single executive is wrong and that there are probably several components.
Research to support the working memory model
Doing 2 tasks using the same or different components.• Hitch & Baddeley (1976) gave participants 2 tasks to do
simultaneously. Task 1 occupied the central executive. Task 2 involved the articulatory loop.
• Task 1 was slower when participants were given a task involving both the cental executive and the articulatory loop.
• This shows that doing 2 tasks that involve the same component causes difficulty.
• It also suggests that when different components are used, performance is not affected.
Research to support the working memory model
The phonological loop and articulatory process.• The word-length effect has been used to support this
model. It describes the fact that people cope better with short words in working memory (STM) than long words.
• The phonological loop holds the amount of information you can say in 2 seconds. (Baddeley 1975)
• This makes it hard to remember a list of long words compred to a list of short words.
• The longer words can’t be rehearsed on the phonolgical loop because they don’t fit.
Research to support the working memory model
• However, the word-length effect disappears if a person is given an articulatory suppression task.
• The repetative task ties up the articulatory process and means you can’t rehearse the shorter more quickly than the longer ones, so the word-length effect disappears.
• This is evidence of the articulatory process.
Research to support the working memory model
The visuo-spatial sketchpad• Baddeley et al (1975) demonstarted the existence of the
visuo-spatial sketchpad.• Participants were given a visual tracking task. At the
same time they were given 1 or 2 other tasks.• Task 1 was difficult but not task 2, presumably because
the second task involved 2 different components.• It also shows that doing 2 tasks involving the same
systems caused problems, and doing 2 tasks involving different systems did not cause problems.
Research to support the working memory model
Brain-damaged patients• Studies of individuals with brain damage
help to support this model.• One individual had good learning abilities
with the exception of being unable to learn words in pairs that were presented out loud.
• This suggests damage to the phonological loop (Trojano & Grossi, 1995)
Research to support the working memory model
• Brain-damaged patients• Another patient, LH, who had been
involved in a road car accident performed better on spatial tasks than those involving visual imagery (Farah et al, 1998)
• This supports the view that there are separate visual and spatial systems.
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