Task create a model of WMM Working Memory

Task: create a model of WMM

Working Memory Model

Working Memory Case Studies and other supporting evidence

Components of working memory Directs attention to particular tasks. It controls the other systems by determining how resources will be allocated. (Think a control tower at an airport. ) Central Executive Controls auditory information. Further subdivided into the phonological store (inner ear) and articulatory process (inner voice). Phonological loop Processes visual and spatial information (how things look and where they are). Visuo-spatial pad general store. Added later to the model to account for things that use both visual and acoustic information. Episodic buffer

Evidence to support the WM model: What evidence is there to support the Working Memory model? What do you Do you know one study to support the existence of? mean? “You 1. The Central executive 3. Visuo-spatial sketch pad don’t? ” 2. Phonological loop 4. Episodic buffer Ensure you know the names of the experimenters, the procedure, the results and the conclusions of a study for at least 2 components.

Case Study evidence What is a case study? A case study is an in-depth detailed study of one individual, one small group or one event. Many different psychological techniques can be used (e. g. , questionnaires, interviews, personality tests). The findings attempt to represent the individual’s thoughts, emotions, experiences and abilities. Case studies give us detailed information however we may not be able to generalise from them as they sometimes describe a unique experience or individual

The Case of KF In the 1970 s, KF was in a motorcycle accident, resulting in brain damage to his left occipital lobe (pictured right). STM was damaged (digit span of 2), but LTM was normal He remembered words better if presented visually as opposed to auditorally. Shallice & Warrington

KF’s memory What does KF’s case study tell psychologists about memory? Although his LTM is intact, his STM is not, which supports the Multi -Store Memory model. I. e. that there are separate long term and short term memory stores. However, he remembers words better if presented visually rather than auditorally, which supports the Working Memory Model. His phonological loop is damaged but other areas are functioning. This suggests there are separate visual and acoustic stores

Further case study evidence HM In the 1940 s, HM had a lobotomy performed to correct epileptic seizures. If you fancy learning something gruesome find out about frontal lobotomies……. . yuck!! After the surgery, HM was no longer able to form new long-term memories. For many years, he believed that he was 27 years old, and the year was 1953. HM had kept his procedural memory (memory for skills) but not his episodic memory (memory of events). His body knew the way to his doctor’s office, even though he didn’t!!

Which model of memory does HM’s case support ? HM’s case demonstrates that there are different long-term memory stores (procedural and episodic). HM’s case also supports Peterson and Peterson’s study. His short term memory was about 20 seconds long. So we can use HM’s case study to provide evidence for the MSM

Clive Wearing Remember we watched a video clip about Clive Wearing? His STM lasted about 15 seconds. You should already notes on His procedural andhave semantic andmade episodic memories LTM case studies a prep were intact (episodicas-prior totask his illness). you identify strengths and After Can his illness he could 2 not move information from STM weaknesses of using into LTM to make new LTMs. Case Studies? He provides more evidence for the existence of different memory stores and different types of LTM

Research evidence to support WMM You will now take part in a number of short experiments on working memory Please note • You have already given prior informed consent • You have the right to withdraw at any point • You will not be harmed during the experiment • Please write any answers down on a separate piece of paper and do not put your name on it • Any questions?

Condition 1 You will see a number of words when you see the smiley face try and write down the words you have seen.

BUS

ARM

CAT

PINE

TIN

SHAPE

COAT

Check • • Bus Arm Cat Pine Tin Shape Coat DV is the number of words recalled out of 7

Condition 2 You will see a number of words when you see the smiley face try and write down the words you have seen.

ORGANISATION

NEUROLOGICAL

UNIVERSITY

QUANTIFIABLE

ASSOSCIATION

UNDENIABLE

PATHOLOGICAL

Check • • Organisation Neurological University Quantifiable Association Undeniable Pathological

What was the IV? Long words vs short words? Mono-syllabic words vs multisyllabic words

Write a hypothesis Should it be one tailed or two tailed? What experimental design was used ?

H 1 More mono-syllabic words will be recalled out of 7 compared to the number of multi-syllabic words recalled out of 7.

Null hypothesis H 0 There will be no difference in the number of mono-syllabic words recalled out of 7 compared to the number of multi-syllabic words recalled out of 7. Any difference found will be due to chance.

Which word list was easier to remember? Which hypothesis was supported and which was rejected? Can you explain the findings?

The Word- length effect • It seems that the phonological loop holds the amount of information that you can say in 1. 5 - 2 seconds (Baddeley et al, 1975). • This makes it hard to remember a list of long words such as ‘association’ and ‘university’ compared to shorter words like ‘Arm’ and ‘Bus’ because there is limited space for rehearsal in the articulatory process which inhibits the rehearsal of longer words! • This provides evidence for the existence of the phonological loop

Condition 3 Now try doing the same again with the following words whilst repeating the word ‘red lorry, yellow lorry’ over again.

Left

So

Hat

Bike

Wave

Time

Us

Representation

Contradictory

Presentation

Generalisability

Unsophisticated

Conscientious

Unrepresentative

If the articulatory process is tied up Baddeley found the word length effect disappeared Left Representation So Contradictory Hat Presentation Bike Generalisability Wave Unsophisticated Time Conscientious Us Unrepresentative Long and short words were as equally hard to remember

‘red lorry, yellow lorry’ • The articulatory suppression task ties up the articulatory process and means you cannot rehearse the shorter words more quickly than the longer ones, so the word length effect disappears. • This further supports the existence of the articulatory process.

From GHG >>> participants recall shorter words better than longer ones, as predicted by the WMM. These findings support the WMM's view that the phonological loop has a limited capacity which is determined by how many words can be vocalised within about two seconds. It's possible to rehearse more words in that time if they are shorter because you can 'fit more in'. It also supports the prediction that the word length effect will disappear if the participant is given a repetitive verbal task to perform at the same time (such as saying 'the the…' over and over again, out loud), because this task uses the articulatory process, shorter words no longer have an advantage. There is no room to rehearse them any more than there is room to rehearse longer words.

Try the following task F With one finger, work your way round the maze on the next slide. While you do this count the number of right angles in the letter F.

Condition 2 With one finger, work your way round the maze on the next slide. Repeat the word ‘purple over and over again. people power’

Which one is easier than the other?

Evidence to support the visuospatial sketchpad Participants were asked to track a moving line with a pointer whilst at the same time they were given one of two tasks: Baddeley et al. (1975) 1. To describe the angles of the letter F Or 2. To perform a verbal task They performed better in the second task. Why?

Findings Ptts had difficulty doing 2 visual tasks compared to doing a visual and a verbal task at the same time. This is because in the first condition both visual tasks complete for the same limited resources. In the secondition there is no competition. This dual task performance activity provides evidence for the Visuo-spatial sketchpad

The Central Executive Braver (1997) used FMRI scanning of the prefrontal cortex whilst ppts were engaged in decision making and reasoning tasks. Brain activity increased as the tasks became harder. This provides evidence that the CE has a physical reality in the brain.

Studies: Central Executive EVR – had a tumour removed which left him with some brain damage and deficits in We don’t yet know enough about some tasks requiring the central the CE. executive, but not we others. In the future may be able to more in about the central – He waslearn ‘normal’ relation to reasoning skillsexecutive. May be it can also be subdivided the same way and the – But, he had poorloop decision phonological and themaking Visuo- skills spatial sketch pad can be What does this suggest about the central executive?

Practice AO 2 style Question Zac is playing a computer game which involves sorting coloured shapes that appear on the screen. He has to capture the shapes and drag them to the appropriate collection box. Which component is being used? While he plays, he chats to Callum about a football match. Which component is being used? When he has completed level 1, he moves on to level 2. Here, the shapes are replaced by words that have to be sorted according to their meaning. Zac begins to make mistakes and so stops talking to Callum. W com hich pon e is b eing nt use d? With reference to the features of the working memory model, explain why Zac can easily cope with level 1 and chat to Callum but, when he gets to level 2, he cannot do both things at the same time (4 marks)

Answer From GHG Most people can manage these tasks together because they are using different subsystems of working memory. Answering the true-false quiz in the magazine is a reasoning and decision-making task. This involves the central executive. Repeating the digits is a speech-based task involving the phonological loop (specifically the articulatory process). So there is no competition between the two subsystems for resources and therefore little interference between the two tasks.

There will be a difference in the number of words correctly recalled by the short-word group and the long-word group. Non-directional. (You may have written a directional one, e. g. more words are recalled correctly from the short-word group than the long-word group. ) One confounding variable might be familiarity with the words. Generally speaking, longer words are less frequent, less familiar and therefore harder to recall than shorter ones. According to the working memory model, words in the phonological store will decay after about 2 seconds unless they are repeated (rehearsed). This means that the capacity of the phonological loop amounts to the number of words you can say in about 2 seconds. So you should be able to remember more one-syllable words than three-syllable words because they are shorter. In other words, you can fit more of them into a twosecond period. So the word length effect supports the existence of the phonological loop.

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