monitors incomingdata, makes decisions and allocatesslavesystems
limited processing capacity
phonological loop
deals with auditory information
phonological store - stores the words you hear
articulatory process
allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds or words in a 'loop' to keep them in the working memory)
the capacity is believed to be twoseconds worth of what you can say
visuo-spatial sketchpad
stores visual and/or spatial information
limited capacity of around 3 or 4 objects
visual cache - stores visual data
inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in the visual field
episodic buffer
temporary store of information, integrating visual, spatial and verbal information and maintaining a sense of time sequencing
storage component of central executive
limited capacity of about 4 chunks
episodic buffer links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception
+clinical evidence
case study on patientKF who had poorSTM ability for verbalinfo but could process visualinfo presented visually. this suggests that just his phonologicalloop had been damaged leaving other areas intact
supports that stores are separate
+dualtask performance
studies support separateexistence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad. baddeley showed that ppts had more difficulty doing two visual/two verbal tasks than doing a visual and verbal at the same time
= must be a separate slave system (VSS) that processes visualinput
-lack of clarity over the centralexecutive
cognitive psychologists suggest that this component of the WMM is unsatisfactory and doesn't explain anything
needs to be more clearlyspecified than simply being 'attention'
= model hasn't fully been explained
+brainscanning studies support the WMM
tasks involving central executive, greateractivity in prefrontal cortex - increases as task gets harder
explained by WMM
+studies of the word length effect support the phonologicalloop
harder to remember a list of long words, than short words=word length effect
finite space for rehearsal in articulatory process
effect disappears if a person is given an articulatorysuppressiontask
supports models view that the loop has limited capacity