Psychology Unit 1- Memory WORKING MEMORY MODEL

• Working Memory Model Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
• Central executive- overall control, limited capacity, set task goals, monitoring & correcting errors, starting rehearsal, switching attention. Supported by two 'slave' systems.
• Phonological loop- 'inner voice'- limited capacity, temp storage system- verbal info: Made of (passive) phonological store & articulatory loop- subvocal repetition
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad- 'inner eye'- limited capacity, temp memory system- visual/spatial info: Made of (passive) visual store- 'Visual Cache' & (active) Inner scribe- rehearsal mechanism
• Evidence for phonological loop: Baddeley, Thomson & Buchanan (1975)
• Word lists- brief exposure- write down in serial order. 5 words each condition.
• Condition 1- monosyllabic- harm, wit, twice. Condition 2- polysyllabic- organisation, university, association
• Recalled more short words- Word Length Effect- capacity of loop determined by time to say words rather than no. of items- 1.5 secs
• Lab- Repeated measures- controlled, maybe longer words less famililar?- harder to recall?, consent, debrief.

Evidence for the visuo-spatial sketchpad - Baddeley, Grant, Wight & Thomson (1973)

• Tracking task- following light in a circle whilst doing a visual imagery task (imagining block capital .e.g F H T E, saying whether the angles were on bottom or top line (yes or no) ) 
• Difficulty in doing both- both tasks competing for limited resources of visuo-spatial sketchpad.
• Lab- controlled, artificial, repeated measures- eliminated individual differences, consent, debrief, frustration- reassurance.

Evidence for the central executve- Baddeley (1996/99)

• Much less research- harder to research
• Functions of CE- trying to think of random sequence of numbers- difficult because patterns emerge- competing for CE resources.

Strengths and Weaknesses of WMM

• Extremely influential & most psychologists prefer WMM to MSM
• Explains STM is vast detail
• Can explain more than MSM e.g. brain damaged patients
• WMM accounts for individual differences
• Can be applied to more real life settings
• Still do not offer full understanding of memory e.g. musical memory- listening to instrumental music doesn't affect our performance of other tasks
• Exact role of central executive is unclear