Working Memory Model

• who proposed the working memory model?

  Baddeley & Hitch
• Central executive 


  Control centre
• slave systems 


  phonological loop, episodic buffer, visuo-spatial sketchpad
• capacity of phonological loop

  very high
• duration of phonological loop

  2 seconds
• capacity of episodic buffer

  4 chunks
• capacity of visuo-spatial sketchpad

  3-4 objects
• Strengths of WMM

  • explains how information is processed
  • provides research support for study’s such as the dual task study
• Weaknesses of WMM

  • can’t research the central executive without affecting its slave systems
  • researcher bias as all supporting evidence was provided by Baddeley & Hitch
• Phonological loop

  Processes auditory information
• episodic buffer 


  Maintains a sense of time
• visuo-spatial sketchpad

  processes visual and/or spatial information