Recap - WMM
Quick sketch on iPad with labels
Airplay!
3 mark application question
Why can he process visual information from the game and hold a conversation?
◦ WMM suggests that the VSS will hold and process visual information from the game Zac is playing, in this case the
shapes. The phonological store (linked to speech perception) acts as an inner ear and holds information in speechbased form so the words used by Dan to communicate with Zac would be held there. These are separate components
that can process shapes and the verbal information separately
Why is it more difficult for him to process verbal information from the game and hold a conversation?
◦ At level 2 the game changes from shapes to understanding words. As well as using the phonological store to hold and
process the auditory information from Dan, the written words (from the game) must first be converted into an
articulatory (spoken) code before they can enter the phonological store and be held there too.
Why did he have to stop talking to his friend?
◦ Due to the limited capacity of this component his phonological store was overloaded and Zac was unable to effectively
process the verbal task and the conversation he was having with Dan at the same time.
Contextualised answer- refer to the scenario throughout.
Generic points that do not relate to their names and situation are not credit worthy
Extra component added to model in 2000
The episodic buffer is responsible for:
Linking/binding together information from all other
elements of working memory (Phonological loop and VSS)
with information relating to time and order.
So that things occur in a continuing sequence, like a story
from a book or movie.
Buffer- temporarily hold information
So….‘episodic’ in the sense that it is capable of holding
episodes (integrated chunks of information)
Evaluation of the WMM
Supporting evidence: Dual Task
Technique (Baddeley and Hitch, 1976)
As we have already discussed:
Individuals seem able to carry out two cognitive tasks simultaneously as long as they use
different slave systems, eg. An auditory and a visual task
BUT if you ask someone to perform two auditory or two visual tasks at the same time,
performance suffers
Provide details of the study and explain HOW it supports the WMM
Supporting evidence: KF Case Study (Shallice
and Warrington (1970)
 KF
Short term memory impairment
Digit span of one-two
 Gross impairment to phonological store
 Visual memory in tact
HOW does this support the WMM?
Support
Brain Imaging (Smith et al 1995)
MRI and PET scans have shown that different areas of
the brain are active when using different aspects of
memory,
The Phonological Loop seems to be located in the left
hemisphere, specifically in the temporal lobe
The VSSP is in the right hemisphere, with simple tasks in
the occipital lobe and complicated ones in the parietal
lobe.
The Episodic Buffer seems to be in both hemispheres
(bilateral) but particularly in the hippocampus
The Central Executive seems to be linked to the frontal
lobes
Opposing evidence
Although it is more sophisticated than the MSM…..
Recent research has suggested that the VSSP be itself be separated into separate visual and spatial
components
Eg. Farah (1988) Case Study of LH, who was involved in a road accident
Afterwards he performed better on spatial tasks than those involving visual imagery
Application
How can we apply this model to everyday life?
Learning? Refer Dual task and revision
Dementia sufferers have particular trouble with dual tasks.
Baddeley & Erses adapted tasks for Alzheimer’s sufferers and found they still struggled with this,
Baddeley suggests this is a fault with the Central Executive which may explain a lot of dementia
symptoms.
The dual load can be reduced by creating a quiet environment for dementia sufferers without
background noise.
Examples?
Reductionism
Working memory only involves STM so it is not a comprehensive model of memory (as it does
not include SM or LTM)
•Case study of LH - separate visual and spatial components in our memory. Separation of the VSS
into separate components is not shown on the original WMM thus this model could be accused
of being reductionist as it oversimplifies the nature of the VSS.
Provide one strength and one weakness of the
MSM of memory (2 paragraphs using PEC)
One mark for identifying the
strength/weakness in regards to MSM and one
mark for an explanation/justification
i.e.
Strength
Weakness
◦ P
◦ P
◦ C
◦ C
H/W Complete the table
Compare the MSM with the WMM
MSM
Term
However
Similarly
WMM
Typical question:
Compare MSM with
WMM by Explaining
one similarity and
one difference.
Cognitive assessment one
Week beginning 30th of Jan – first lesson in that week
Cognitive approach
MSM
WMM
A01
A02
A03