the working memory model

• who created the working memory model?

  Baddeley & Hitch
• what does the working memory model claim?

  there are four components of working memory
• what are the four components of working memory?

  The central executive, the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer
• what is the central executive?

  the function is to direct attention to particular tasks, determining at any time how the three slave systems are allocated to tasks. It has limited capacity
• what is the phonological loop?

  deals with auditory information an preserves the order of information
• what does the phonological loop consist of?

  the phonological store and the articulatory control proess
• what is the phonological store?

  holds the words you hear, like an inner ear
• what is the articulatory control process?

  used for words that are heard or seen, like an inner voice
• what is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

  stores visual and spatial information when required. It has limited capacity
• what can the visuo-spatial sketchpad be divided into?

  visual cache - stores visual data

  inner scribe - arrangement of objects in the visual field
• what is the episodic buffer?

  binds and integrates information from all of the components and passes the information to LTM. cds visual and acoustic info but has limited capacity
• what is research support for working memory model?

  Shallie and Warrington's (1970) case study of patient KF

  KF was able to recall stored information from his LTM, but had issues with his STM

  he was able to remember visual images but unable to remember sounds
• how is research support of KF a strength of the WMM?

  suggests there are at least two components within the STM, one for visual and one for acoustic
• what is a counter-comment for research support of patient KF?

  lacks population validity - only one person was studied so lacks generalisability to a wider population
• what is further research support for WMM?

  dual-task studies by Baddeley (1976)

  when two tasks required the participants to use the same component, their ability to perform the tasks was impaired

  however, when the task required different components, their performance was not impaired
• how is dual-task studies a strength of the WMM?


  provide evidence for the existence of multiple components
• what is a counter-comment for dual-task studies in the WMM?

  lab experiment - lacks ecological validity

  tested memory in an artificial and unrealistic way, lacks generalisability to real life