The WMM

• What is the working memory model of memory?


  A representation of short-term memory (STM). It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision-making system
• How is the WMM different from the MSM?


  The multi-store model explains short term memory of a single unit, the working memory model accounts for many different types of short-term memory (e.g. words vs visual information) and the different ways they are processed
• What is the phonological loop?


  Deals with auditory information, it processes spoken and written information. It is further divided into the phonological store - holds speech based information (words we hear) for 1-2 seconds. Articulatory process -  linked to speech production as it silently repeats words in the phonological store (maintenance rehearsal). This looping of information is how we remember telephone numbers we have just heard
• What is the episodic buffer?


  Added to the model in 2000 because they felt the model needed a store. The EB is a temporary store for information, integrating the visual spatial and verbal information. It's processed by other stores and maintains a sense of time sequencing and recording events as they happen. Also, it links the working memory to the long-term memory in wider cognitive processes. It integrates information from other sub-systems and from long-term memory, which creates a unitary episodic representation
• Who proposed this model of memory?

  Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
• Which aspect of memory are they focusing on?


  • Focuses on one aspect of memory: STM
  • Concerned with the memory you use when completing a task (hence the name)
• What is the main assumption of the WMM?


  • STM is not one store but a different stores that are responsible for processing different types of information
• Why did the psychologists have this assumption?


  • When doing two tasks at the same time (dual task performance), we are less able to perform the tasks if they are the same type of tasks e.g. two visual/auditory tasks at the same time
  • If we are doing two different tasks simultaneously such as repeating a word whilst drawing, our performance is unaffected