Working Memory Model

• What are the components of the Working Memory Model?

  • Central Executive
  • Visuospatial Sketchpad
  • Episodic Buffer
  • Phonological Loop (Phonological Store, Articulatory Process)
• What is the role of the Visuospatial Sketchpad?

  Analyses visual info (visual cache) and spatial info (inner scribe)
• What is the role of the Phonological Loop?

  • Articulatory process - repeats words in a loop (inner voice)
  • Phonological store - the words that you hear (inner ear)
• What is the role of the Episodic Buffer?

  Integrates information from all other slave systems in the WMM
• What is the role of the Central Executive?

  Allocates slave systems to different tasks and gives attention to oncoming data
• What does Hunt’s study show about the WMM?

  • PPs performed a psychomotor task at the same time as an IQ test
  • As one task became harder, performance decreased on the other task
  • This shows two slave systems competing for the limited capacity of the CE
• What are the strengths of the WMM?

  • Clinical Evidence - case study of KF, his visual memory was better than his auditory (PL worse than his VSS)
  • Hunt’s study of dual-task performance supports the existence of slave systems
• What are the limitations of the WMM?

  • Lack of clarity over CE - it is simply defined as ‘attention’
  • Case study of KF can’t be generalised to everyone