the working memory model Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

the working memory model Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

1. components

   • central executive
     • mainly decides how to allocate its resources
       • how to share out and direct attention to incoming resources
     • seen as having a limited capacity
     • can accept information from any sense modality
     • flexible in how it allocates its limited resources
       • can do more than one at a time or attend to one thing by inhabiting attention to another
     • thought to be involved in higher cognitive processes, such as comprehension, reasoning and problem-solving
     • deploys slave systems that all operate at the same time
   • the articulatory (phonological loop)
     • can be thought of as a maintenance rehearsal mechanism for retaining mainly acoustic, verbal information
     • limited capacity
     • consists of:
       • phonological store (inner ear)
         • briefly holds acoustically coded information, chiefly speech
       • articulatory control process (inner voice)
         • allows for sub vocal rehearsal of items in the phonological store e.g. words we are about to say
   • visuospatial sketchpad (inner eye)
     • responsible for briefly storing visual and spatial information
       • can be maintained by rehearsal
     • limited capacity
     • codes information in images
     • involved in pattern and movement perception
     • can create and manipulate visual and spatial images
       • e.g. a choice of routes you want to take
   • episodic buffer
     • more recent addition to model (Baddeley 2000)
     • short-lived, limited capacity
     • accessed by the central executive through conscious awareness
     • like Tulving's episodic memory, but this is short-lived
     • can take information from different sources and combine them into an integrated whole
     • can draw on information from LTM if needed by working memory
     • important in higher cognitive process such as creative thinking and problem solving

2. evaluation

   • strengths
     • good face validity
     • Baddeley and Hitch (1976)
       • gave ppts 2 tasks to do simultaneously
         • task 1- occupied central executive
           • e.g. ppts given statement 'B is followed by A' and shown letters such as 'AB' and asked to say true of false
         • task 2- either involved phonological loop or both the central executive and phonological loop
           • phonological loop example- saying 'the' over and over
           • for the latter example- saying random digits
           • or no additional task
       • task 1 was slower when given a task involving both the central executive and phon' loop
         • task 1 was the same whether using phon' loop or no extra task
       • showed ppt doing two tasks involving same component can cause difficulty and when different components are used performance is unaffected
     • case studies
       • Shallice and Warrington (1970)
         • KF
     • different kinds of memory
     • more detailed than MSM
   • central executive
     • some psychologists feel central executives purpose is too vague
     • Eslinger and Damasio (1985)
       • studies EVR- had a cerebral tumour removed
         • did well on tests requiring reasoning- suggesting central executive was intact
           • but had poor decision making skills- suggesting central executive wasn't wholly intact
   • evidence from brain-damaged
     • some key evidence of WMM comes from case studies that have suffered severe brain damage
       • can't make 'before' and 'after' comparisons
       • process of brain injury is traumatic, which can itself change behaviour
   • Berz (1995)
     • criticised it for failing to account for musical memory
       • we are able to listen to instrumental music without impairing performance on other tasks