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The Working Memory Model
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Memory – Working Memory
In this course, Dr Ashok Jansari (Goldsmiths, University of London) explores the working memory model. In the first lecture, we think about the history of the model and its origin as a development on from the multi-store (or modal) model of memory. In the second lecture, we think about three primary pieces of evidence for the phonological loop: the phonological similarity effect, the word length effect, and the unattended speech effect. In the third lecture, we think about neuroscientific evidence for the working memory model, citing patient KF and Baddeley & colleagues’ 1986 research on dual task performance of people with dementia as evidence. Next, we think about neuroscientific evidence for the central executive, citing Phineas Gage and patient EVR as key case studies, as well as introducing the Jansari assessment of Executive Functions (JEF) as a modern assessment of executive function. In the fifth and final lecture, we consider memory from a developmental psychology perspective and explore why children develop different aspects of memory with different proficiencies.
The Working Memory Model
In this lecture, we think about the working memory model, focusing in particular on: (i) the origins of Baddeley and Hitch’s working memory model; (ii) Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store model of memory, which the working memory model superseded; (iii) the role of patient KF in demonstrating the flaws of the multi-store/modal model of memory, which led to the development of the working memory model.
I'm Dr Ashok
00:00:06Jansari, and I'm a cognitive neuropsychologist at Goldsmiths University of London.
00:00:08As a neuropsychologist, what I do is that I try to understand how you and I function,
00:00:13but by studying people with brain damage or with all sorts of deficits.
00:00:19So, for example,
00:00:23I will study people with memory disorders to understand how our memory works.
00:00:24In this lecture, I'm going to be talking about the working memory model
00:00:30and tell you a bit about the historical background to it.
00:00:33This model was formed in the 19
00:00:38sixties by two very important cognitive psychologist,
00:00:40Alan Badly and Graham Hitch at Sussex University.
00:00:44The reason they developed this model was because of findings that
00:00:48were coming out from research about differences in short term memory.
00:00:52You may have heard of the multi-store or modal model by Atkinson and Shiffrin,
00:00:58and what that model suggested was that there were three stages to memory.
00:01:03Information came in through our senses.
00:01:07Then it was taken from our five senses into the brain,
00:01:10taken to something that process short term memory,
00:01:13which lasts about two minutes or so,
00:01:17and then some of that was transferred to long term memory
00:01:20that model was quite useful and it explained a lot of things,
00:01:23including the fact that you can have patients with
00:01:28amnesia who can remember something for two minutes
00:01:31but can't remember from any longer than that,
00:01:34and the reason for that would be because they
00:01:37can take information into their short term memory.
00:01:40But the process to transfer into long term memory has been affected.
00:01:42However,
00:01:47that model wasn't able to explain everything.
00:01:48And one of the things that it couldn't explain
00:01:51was a rather interesting case of a patient studied by
00:01:54Tim Chalets and Elizabeth Warrington in the UK, known as K F,
00:01:58who had a motorbike accident.
00:02:02And from that motorbike accident he ended up with damage to the front of his brain.
00:02:04And what they found is that this patient known as K F
00:02:10had a good long term memory so he could tell you what
00:02:14happened last week or what he did for his birthday last year.
00:02:18But he had problems with remembering things in the short term, so if you gave him
00:02:21five or seven words to remember, he could only remember about two of them,
00:02:27and that seemed rather odd,
00:02:32and slowly
00:02:34it started becoming apparent that there were
00:02:35modal model couldn't explain patients like that
00:02:38who had a bad short term memory but a good long term memory.
00:02:41So that was part of the historical context
00:02:45for why we moved from the modal model to the working memory model.
00:02:48Evidence was beginning to mount.
00:02:53That demonstrated that whilst the modal model is strong,
00:02:56it couldn't explain everything.
00:03:00And a model that can't explain everything needs development.
00:03:01And what happened is that Sussex University,
00:03:05Alan Badly and Graham Hitch started
00:03:08doing experiments that demonstrated that this thing
00:03:11called short term memory was way more complex than had originally been thought.
00:03:14So in the next lecture,
00:03:20I'm going to give you evidence for different aspects of this model,
00:03:22which have a manager in the centre called the Central Executive
00:03:26and subsidiary systems help it.
00:03:31One of those subsidiary systems is called the
00:03:35Phonological Loop that holds sound based information,
00:03:37and the other one is called the Visual Spatial Sketch Pad,
00:03:41which processes information that come in through the eyes.
00:03:44So that's what we're going to do in the next lecture
00:03:49
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Jansari, A. (2022, March 15). Memory – Working Memory - The Working Memory Model [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/memory-working-memory/a-developmental-psychology-perspective
MLA style
Jansari, A. "Memory – Working Memory – The Working Memory Model." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 15 Mar 2022, https://massolit.io/courses/memory-working-memory/a-developmental-psychology-perspective