Transcript The Working Memory Model

Evidence to support
Specification Content
What does this mean?
The working memory model,
including its strengths and
limitations
Describe and evaluate the
working memory model.
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To outline the features of the working memory
model.
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To describe research evidence to support the
existence of components in the working memory
model.
Central executive
Temporary store for visual and spatial information.
Phonological loop
Phonological store
Rehearsal mechanism of the visuo-spatial sketchpad that deals
with spatial information.
Stores information in the visuo-spatial sketchpad.
Articulatory control
system
Visuo-spatial sketchpad
General storage system responsible for integrating information
from all working memory components.
Temporary storage system for auditory information.
Visual cache
Active rehearsal system in which words are maintained by
subvocal repetition.
Attentional control system and key component of working
memory.
Inner scribe
Episodic buffer
Passive storage system that holds information in words that you
hear for a brief period.
Central executive
Temporary store for visual and spatial information.
Phonological loop
Phonological store
Rehearsal mechanism of the visuo-spatial sketchpad that deals
with spatial information.
Stores information in the visuo-spatial sketchpad.
Articulatory control
system
Visuo-spatial sketchpad
General storage system responsible for integrating information
from all working memory components.
Temporary storage system for auditory information.
Visual cache
Active rehearsal system in which words are maintained by
subvocal repetition.
Attentional control system and key component of working
memory.
Inner scribe
Episodic buffer
Passive storage system that holds information in words that you
hear for a brief period.
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You will all be given a number between 1 and 6.
When instructed, you will all move and join the group of people who
have the same number as you – this is your group for this activity.
In the four corners of the room I am going to put a piece of research that
supports a component of the working memory model.
One person from each group needs to move to a different corner of the
room.
You will need to discuss the study and identify which component of
working memory the research supports.
You will need to complete the relevant part of your table on your
worksheet.
Any questions?
You have 15 minutes to complete this activity.
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Return to your original groups.
Each person needs to feedback to the group.
Everybody needs to have a completed table by
the end of this activity.
You have 15 minutes.
Be prepared to feedback to the class!
The researchers used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(fMRI) to identify which parts of the brain were most active when
participants took part in either single or dual tasks. The single task
condition required participants to complete one task after another.
The dual task condition required each participant to perform two
tasks at the same time. The findings indicated that the same brain
areas were active during both conditions, but there was significantly
more activation in the dual task condition. This increased brain
activity reflects increased attentional demands when participants
took part in the dual task condition.
This research found that people cope better with short words than long
words in working memory (STM). Participants were asked to recall sets of
five words immediately in the correct order. It was found that participant’s
ability to do this was better with short words than with long words; this is
called the ‘word-length effect.’ The research suggests that the capacity of
the phonological loop is determined by the time it takes to say the words
rather than the number of items. This makes it hard to remember a list of
long words such as ‘association’ and ‘representative’ compared to shorter
words like ‘harm’ and ‘twice.’ The longer words can’t be rehearsed on the
phonological loop because they do not fit.
However, the word- length effect disappears if a person is give an
articulatory suppression task e.g. if you are asked to say ‘the the the’ while
reading the words. This repetitive task ties up the articulatory process
removing the advantage of rehearsal and thus the word-length effect
disappears. This is evidence of the articulatory process.
Participants were given a visual tracking task (they had to
track a moving light with a pointer). At the same time they
were given one of two tasks: task 1 was an imagery task in
which participants had to imagine the block capital letter ‘F’
and describe all of the angles on the letter F. Task 2 was to
perform a verbal task. Participants found task 1 very difficult;
they had to track the spot of light and accurately classify the
angles in the letter imagery ask. However they were perfectly
capable of carrying out the tracking task in conjunction with a
verbal task. This suggests that the tracking and letter imagery
tasks were competing for the limited resources of the visuospatial sketchpad whereas the tracking and verbal task were
using two separate components of working memory; the
visuo-spatial sketchpad and phonological loop.
Participants were shown words and then asked for immediate
recall. The findings indicate that performance was much better for
sentences (related words) than for unrelated words. This supports
the idea of an immediate memory store for items that are neither
visual nor phonological and that draw on long-term memory (the
link to related words).
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Baddeley and Hitch (1974) felt that STM was not just one unitary
store (as proposed by the multi-store model of memory) but
that it consisted of a number of different components.
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Procedure: Participants were given digit strings to rehearse
aloud while, at the same time, carrying out a verbal reasoning
task.
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Findings: Participants in the study were able to recall six-digit
strings and perform accurately on the reasoning task.
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These findings suggest that the two tasks did not interfere with
each other because they made use of different components
within STM , thus performance was not affected.
complete understanding
articulatory loop
central executive
performance
verbal task
subvocally
working memory
moving spot of light
word-length effect
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storage and processes
musical