*C5: Working Memory

*C5: Working Memory

1. related to but different from STM and LTM

2. used to keep things in mind for a few seconds while we make a list, read, do calculations, etc

3. Baddely (1996) model of phonological WM, vocal acquisition, and computational modelling of WM

4. span - how many items can be remembered

5. evidence that STM and LTM are 1: different, and 2: work in different ways

   • not STM which involves sensory coding e.g. hold onto a 7 digit phone number
     • measured by word span or digit span (about 7)
   • not LTM which involves coding for semantic meaning
   • patient KF: could not repeat back more than 2 digits but had unimpaired LTM
   • amnesiac patients with impaired LTM can repeat back a string of numbers

6. multi component WM model(s)

   • Baddely and Hitch 1974
     • ARL and CE
       • articulatory loop and central executive
         • CE as controller and coordinator, also as workspace to 2 slave systems AL and VSS
           • trade off between storage and processing
             • as measured by Daneman and Carpenter 1980
               • reading span task
                 • links with:
               • methods: individual differences used to support cognitive model
           • CE: revised: no longer workspace; purely attentional
             • bc of arguments presented by Norman and Shallice 1986 SAS supervisory attentional system
             • Baddely 1986
             • revised again to include Episodic Buffer, controlled by the CE
               • Baddely 2000
               • integration system interfaces with slave systems AL VSS and LTM
                 • binding problem
               • accounts for coherent operating system and unitary nature of conscious experience
   • Baddely 1983
     • added VSS
       • Visio spatial sketchpad
   • Baddely et al 1984
     • ARL becomes PL
       • (phonological store) and phonological loop
         • store separate from control process for subvocal rehearsal
   • Logie 1995
     • proposed similar store and control process for visual and spatial system
   • Core idea: CE with 2 slave systems: PL, VSS
     • PL for verbal, VSS for visual info

7. modal model of memory

   • 1971: atkinson and shriffin
     • environmental input: sensory stores (iconic, echoic, haptic)
       • short term store: temporary working memory / Control processes: rehearsal, coding, decisions, retrieval, strategies
         • long term store / permanent memory store
         • response output
     • argue that STM is more than a store, more of a WM

8. evidence mostly comes from dual task studies

   • more interference with 2 verbal or 2 visual, than with one of each: so must be two systems.
   • PL is more researched than VSS
     • PL involves an active component driving subvocalisation, and a passive store (2 seconds). Articulatory suppression knocks out the active component.
       • evidence supporting this: 2.2
         • word length effect
           • WM span increases with child's increasing speech rate
             • different languages have predictably different digit spans
       • also used for getting visually presented words into PL
   • CE is the least understood