Working Memory Model

• Designed by Baddley and Hitch (1974) and is an alternative to the MSM to understand the complexities of the STM. It explains how:

  • consists of several components
  • each component has a particular function
  • is an active system which allows us to work through things simultaneously.
• Central executive - function is to direct attention to particular tasks, how the brains resources are allocated to tasks. The resources are the three slave systems: phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer.
• Phonological loop - limited capacity and deals with auditory information.

  Subdivided into:

  Phonological store - holds the words you hear

  Articulatory process - words that are heard or seen, silently repeats these as a form of maintenance rehearsal, the capacity is 2 seconds.
• Visio-spatial sketchpad - spatial task, temporarily visual information. Capacity is 3-4 objects. Subdivided into:

  Visual cache - visual items

  Inner scribe - spatial relations in the visual field.
• Episodic buffer - added by Baddley in 2000 as there was no general store for info. Holds both visual and acoustic info which needs to be processed together in LTM to make sense. Limited capacity of 4 chunks. Sends info to the LTM
• STRENGTHS

  supporting research:

  • baddley and hitch (1974) - dual task techniques, sentence checking task whisky saying aloud a list of 6 digits. performance wasn’t affected due to using two different systems, different components with different functions within the STM
  • supporting case study: KF study
  • practical applications - Holmes et al (2009) used a computerised programme to improve children’s WM, improvements were found 6 months later, proving that working memory can be improved.
• LIMITATIONS

  Incomplete model - WMM is still under development and very little is known about the central executive but it’s supposed to be the most important part. The episodic buffer has also only recently been added.

  Methodological limitations - supporting research is case studies which can’t be replicated and cant be generalised to a wider population. Working memory also deals with a range of tasks that are more complex so it’s difficult to draw firm conclusions.