The Working Memory Model
8/10/11 The Working Memory Model The working memory model was foundered by Braddeley and Hitch in 1974. It's an alternative model which addresses the short term or immediate memory and adds to the original formulation by Atkinson and Shiffrin. It appears that immediate memory is not a unitary store as was first though; rather it is a combination of several temporary memory systems working together. Braddeley and Hitch came about this model as they both realised that if you do two thing at the same time and they are both visual tasks, you perform them less well that if you do them separately. Whereas, if you do two things at the same time and one is visual whilst the other involves sound, then there is no interference. You do them as well simultaneously as you would do them separately, which suggests that there is one store for visual processing and one store for processing sounds, as portrayed by the model. There are four components of the working model and these components are the central executive, the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad and lastly the episodic buffer. The central executive is the key component of the working memory model. Its function is to control attention and coordinate the data that arrives from the senses or the long term memory, determining at any time which of the other three components it should go to. The central executive can
The working memory model
Strengths The working memory model is high in face validity, this means that the model seems plausible. In this case, it seems plausible because it fits with everyday experience of manipulating information when solving problems, with short term memory as a dynamic process rather than a static store. For example, Baddeley (1997) suggests that mentally counting the number of windows in your house (or flat) demonstrates the operations of working memory. Normally a person will imagine each room in turn, forming a mental image of each window (Visuospatial sketchpad), they will count using the phonological loop to rehearse the numbers and this will all be coordinated by the Central Executive. Another advantage of the Working Memory model is that verbal rehearsal is not necessary for all types of information - just verbal strings - this fits better with our everyday experience. For example, we do not have to rehearse everything that happens to us because events are processed by the episodic buffer. Empirical Evidence Baddeley (1975) found that participants' memory span for visually presented one-syllable words was greater than for polysyllabic words (words with more than one syllable). This suggests that the articulatory loop is only able to hold limited number of syllable chunks. However, later studies showed that memory span for words like "Cricket" and "Bishop" was greater
Multi-store model and working memory model
Multi-store Model and the Working Memory Model Models of Memory The Multi-store Model of Memory The multi-store model (MSM) was designed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). It says that there is actually more than one kind of memory. Multi-store model has three parts: sensory memory (SM), short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). Sensory Memory is the type of memory that receives and stores information about the world from our senses. Information lasts just as long enough for it to be transferred to STM (1-3 seconds). The visual system possesses iconic memory for visual stimuli such as shape, size, colour and location (but not meaning), whereas the hearing system has echoic memory for auditory part of sensory memory. Short-term Memory is the type of memory where information is selected by attention from sensory memory, may pass into short term memory (STM). This allows us to retain information (acoustically) long enough to use it, e.g. looking up a telephone number and remembering it long enough to dial it. Peterson and Peterson (1959) have demonstrated that STM last approximately between 15 and 30 seconds, unless people rehearse the material, while Miller (1956) has found that STM has a limited capacity of around 7+/-2 'chunks' of information. STM also appears to mostly encode memory acoustically (in terms of sound) as Conrad (1964) has demonstrated, but can also
Outline and evaluate the working memory model
Outline and evaluate the working memory model. The working memory model (WMM), proposed by Baddeley and Hitch, is a functional model which focuses on the components of short- term memory. The main component is the central executive (CE), which directs attention to information and determine how information will be allocated. There are 3 slave systems under the CE which are specialised to carry out a particular task and manipulate and analyse information. The slave systems are the phonological loop which deals with auditory information. It is further sub- divided into the phonological store, which deals with auditory information, while the articulatory process (inner voice) rehearses the information from the phonological store. Then there is the visuo- spatial sketchpad stores and manipulate visual and spatial information. Lastly the episodic buffer is an extra storage that has in common with all the working memory units, limited capacity. It integrates information from the CE and all the other slave systems. One of the strengths of the working memory model is that there is evidence for the existence of the key components of this model of memory. For example, Baddeley et al. demonstrated the existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad. In the study the participants had to track a moving light with a pointer whilst visualising the letter F (task 1) or doing a verbal task (Task
Outline and evaluate the working memory model
Outline and evaluate the working memory model The WMM is an attempt to explain how STM is organized and how it functions. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) devised the WMM, which developed on Shiffrin and Atkinson’s view that STM was a single unitary store. In the WMM, there are four main components, which are the central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer, which was added to the model in 2001. The central executive is the component of the WMM that coordinates the slave system. The phonological loop processes auditory information, including both written and spoken material. It is divided into the phonological store and the articulatory process. The visuospatial sketchpad processes visual and spatial information in a mental space and is divided into the visual cache and the inner scribe. The episodic buffer brings together material from other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. It also provides a link between working memory and LTM. There is empirical evidence to support that working memory has separate components, functionally and anatomically. Support for the WMM comes from Shallice and Warrington’s (1970) case study on patient KF. Patient KF was a patient suffering from brain damage due to a biking accident, which meant their ability to process verbal and acoustic information was damaged. Patient KF could process
Outline and evaluate the working memory model
Amy Van Schalkwyk 3rd October 2012 Outline and Evaluate the W.M.M (12 marks) The working memory model (W.M.M) addresses one aspect of memory, short-term or immediate memory. Baddeley and Hitch (1974)used the term ’working memory’ to refer to the bit of memory you are using when you are working on a complex task which requires you to store information as you go along. For example when reading a sentence, you store the individual words in the working memory while determining the sentences meaning. Baddeley and Hitch felt that STM was not just one store but a number of different stores. They thought this because if you try to perform two visual tasks at the same time you perform less well than if you do them separately. Also if you do two tasks at the same time but one is visual and the other is auditory then there is no inference. You perform them as well simultaneously as you would if they were separated. This suggests that there is one store for visual processing and another for processing sound. The key element of the W.M.M is the central executive. This directs attention to particular tasks, determining at any time how ‘resources’ are allocated to tasks. The ‘resources’ are a combination of three slave systems. The central executive has a limited capacity and so cannot
Describe and discuss the working model of memory.
Describe and discuss the working model of memory. The term memory is defined as the faculty of remembering. Many psychologists have suggested models into the way our memory works. A model is a representation on a smaller scale of how our brain registers the information so we can remember memories, general knowledge, the things we learn etc... that are important in life. The model above is called the working memory model, it was suggested by Baddeley and Hitch in 1976. It shows the different processes of short-term memory. At the top of this model it shows the central executive (control centre) this is involved in all tasks which require attention. It has a limited capacity and can only store information briefly. It can process any information from any sensory modality, with any type of coding, and can send processing resources to any other of the components throughout this model. The Visuo-spatial scratchpad deals with the visual and/or spatial material, and information is represented as visual features such as size, shape and colour within our memory. It is only linked to the central executive. The Articulatory loop is a verbal rehearsal component which is used to hold the words which we are preparing to speak out loud. It deals with the articulation of our verbal material. The information is represented as it would be spoken. It is only connected with the central
Describe and Evaluate the Working Memory Model (WMM)
Describe and Evaluate the Working Memory Model (WMM) The WMM is a model of short term memory which was developed from experimentation and observation. The WMM consists of 3 main stores, the central executive, the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad. The central executive can store information for a brief period of time and has limited capacity, it is required to perform a number of tasks such as focus and switch attention, co-ordinate the sub-systems and connect working memory with LTM. The phonological loop is divided into two components, a phonological store which holds auditory memory traces for a few seconds before they fade and an articulatory rehearsal process which is essentially sub-vocal speech and ha a limited capacity of about 3-4 items.. Visuo-spatial sketchpad has limited capacity, it also is divided into two components, the visual component which deals with objects and features such as shape and colour and the spatial component which deals with locations and movements in space and it involves tasks such as planning routes. Unlike some other models, the working memory model explains not only the storage, but also the processing of information. It is consistent with records of brain-damaged patients. For example the visuo-spatial sketch pad is said to be made of two parts, the visual component which stores information about colour and form, and the
'Outline and evaluate the working memory model' ( 18 marks)
'Outline and evaluate the working memory model' (18 marks) The working memory model was proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. This was an alternative to the multi-store model because they believed it was too simplistic and did not explain how memories are transferred into the long term memory without rehearsal which can be supported by flashbulb memories e.g. the death of princess Diana. The working memory model focuses on the short term memory and suggests that unlike the multi-store model, there is more than one store. Baddeley and Hitch used the term 'working memory' to refer to the part of the memory that is active or working. This could be as simple as playing a game, calculating sums or reading a sentence all of which are collecting data to be stored. The working memory model consists of three parts; these are the central executive, phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad. The central executive controls attention and draws on the other two systems known as the 'slave systems'. The central executive has a limited capacity; in other words it cannot attend to too many things at once. This is supported by the dual task technique in 1976 where participants were given two tasks to do simultaneously. The first task used the central executive which was a simple sentence verification task e.g. participants were asked to answer true or false when shown the sentence B is
Outline and evaluate the working memory model. (12 marks) UPDATED
Outline and evaluate the working memory model. (12 marks) The working memory model has three separate components. The central executive system allocates attention to different inputs and monitoring the operation of the other two components. The phonological loop has two sub-components, the articulatory control system, where information is rehearsed subvocally, and the phonological store, where speech input is held for a very brief duration. The third component, the visuo-spatial sketchpad deals with visual and spatial information coming either direct from the senses, or retrieved from long-term memory. The fourth component is the episodic buffer which acts as a store for visual and acoustic data. The different components of the working memory model are well supported by research evidence. For example Bunge et al. (2000) found that the same parts of the brain were active during reading and recalling tasks, but were more active when participants had to perform two attentional tasks at the same time than when these were performed sequentially (evidence for the central executive). However, much of the key evidence for this model comes from the study of brain-damaged individuals, where it is impossible to make `before and after` comparisons, thus limiting the validity of any conclusions drawn. Working memory has also been useful in understanding some of the cognitive changes
