The Working Memory Model

Apologies for the late post.

On Wednesday we studied the Working Memory Model. This is a model of short-term memory only. We discussed the Central Executive, the Phonological Loop and the Visuo-Spatial sketchpad, and looked at research evidence that supports the different components.



Wednesday's powerpoint is here.

Your homework over half-term is to complete the mini-projects that we started in class today. The title is 'Does articulatory suppression eliminate the word-length effect?'. Write-ups are to be done individually, and must follow a standard layout - the sheet that explains how to do this is here.

We will also have a short progress test in our next lesson (Wed 12th Nov) on the MSM and WMM.

The multi-store model of memory

Today we put all our previous knowledge about capacity, duration and encoding together in the multi-store model of memory. We discussed sensory memory, and then the advantages (easy to study/intuitive/commonsense/accounts for some research findings) and disadvantages (reductionist/doesn't account for different types of info) of the model. Supporting evidence for the MSM comes from Glanzer & Cunitz (the serial position curve), brain imaging research and evidence from brain-injured patients, eg HM and Clive Wearing.

Today's powerpoint is here.

I also set an essay, this is due in on WEDNESDAY 22ND OCTOBER.

The title is 'Give a brief account of the differences between STM and LTM, and consider the extent to which research supports the distinction between them' (12 marks). A suggested essay plan is here.