AO3 - The working memory model

• The main reason for developing that WMM was to account for dual task performance. Hitch and Baddeley supported the existence of the central execuitve
• Research on the Central Executive

  •  Braver (1997) provides biological evidence of the central executive via brain scans. Braver found an area of the prefrontal cortex that became more active the more demanding a task was for the central executive.
• An application of this finding is driving. Driving involves spatial awareness. If you are attempting to have a conversation with someone in the car whilst driving, then this might result in lower performance on both activities, potential putting the safety of both you and the passenger at risk. However, this finding relates to activities that require conscious thought. Experienced drivers don’t rely on conscious thought to drive (it becomes an automatic process, meaning the CE is freer to do other things), so perhaps only less experiences drivers need to heed this advice.
• The multi-store model sees the short term memory as a passive store of information, while the working memory model seems more accurate in describing how memory is used as an active processor. Psychologists often as a result now refer to the short term memory as the working memory due to this idea.
• The central executive has been criticised by other psychologists as a vague concept without full explanation of its function and is quite difficult to test (not fully falsifiable). Baddeley admits that the concept needs development, and included the episodic buffer as part of this development.