Instructions
Individually, choose a component of working
memory. Write a short paragraph describing the
main features of this working memory
component and outline a piece of research that
supports the existence of this component. Use
your notes and the research table from last week
to help you. You have 15 minutes!
Evaluation: Strengths and Weaknesses of
the WMM
Comparing the WMM and the MSM
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 case studies on brain-damaged
patients to support the working memory
model.
To be able to evaluate the working memory
model in terms of strengths and weaknesses.
To compare the working memory model with
the multi-store model of memory.
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Case studies on brain-damaged patients can
provide support for the working memory model.
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What is a case study?
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A case study is a detailed study of one individual or
event.
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KF suffered brain damage from a motorcycle accident that
damaged his STM yet his LTM was normal.
His performance on visual tests was better than his performance
on auditory tests.
This suggests that there are separate STM components for visual
information (visuo-spatial sketchpad) and verbal information
(phonological loop) and that KF’s brain damage was restricted to
the phonological loop.
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LH suffered brain damage from a road accident.
It was found that LH performed better on spatial tasks than
those involving visual imagery.
This case study suggests separate visual and spatial systems
thus supporting the existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad
in working memory.
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Considerable amount of research to support the model.
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Continuing development of the model.
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Explains observations made by psychologists such as the wordlength effect and the partial short-term memory difficulties
experienced by individuals with brain damage, such as KF and
LH.
An advance of STM as it is concerned with both active processing
and the brief storage of information; relevant to activities such as
mental arithmetic.
Performance on almost any task of any complexity relies on some
combination of the three major components in working memory,
indicating that they are important parts of the human cognitive
processing system.
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Little is known about the central executive, and it has been
argued that it is probably more complex than it is currently
represented.
Most research has focused on the slave components rather
than the central executive.
The explanation and terminology used to describe the
central executive is vague .
The notion of a single central executive has been criticised.
The three main components of the working memory model
interact with each other in the performance of many tasks
but it is not very clear how this happens in practice.
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How is the multi-store model of memory different to the working
memory model in terms of the types of memory that it focuses on?
Structural vs. functional models of memory: Which model is
which?
How does the concept of verbal rehearsal differ between the two
models of memory?
How does the concept of LTM differ between the two models of
memory?
How does the case study of KF support the WMM? Can it be used
to support the MSM and if so, how?
How do the two models differ in their explanation of STM?