Working memory model

• What is the working memory model?

  • Baddeley and Hitch (1974) use the WMM to explain how short-term memory is organised and how it functions
  • Concerned with the 'mental space' that is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating information
• What is the central executive?

  • A 'supervisory' role, monitors incoming data and divides our limited attention by allocating subsystems to tasks
  • Has a very limited processing capacity
  • Does not store information
• What is the phonological loop?

  • An acoustically coded subsystem that deals with auditory information, divided into 2 stores
  • Phonological store: stores the words you hear
  • Articulatory process: allows for maintenance rehearsal or repeating words in a 'loop' to keep them in the working memory while needed
  • Capacity of 'loop' is 2 seconds worth of what we can say
• What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

  • A visually coded subsystem that stores visual and/or spatial information with a limited capacity of 3 or 4 objects according to Baddeley (2003)
  • Visual cache: stores visual data
  • Inner scribe: records the arrangement of objects in our visual field
• What is the episodic buffer?

  • Temporary store for information integrating visual, spatial, and verbal information processed by other subsystems with a sense of time sequencing - recording events that are happening
  • Storage component of the central executive
  • Baddeley (2012): limited capacity of about 4 chunks
  • Links our working memory to our long-term memory as well as wider cognitive processes like perception
• What is one strength of the working memory model?

  • Clinical evidence: Shallice and Warrington (1970)'s study of KF found that after his brain injury, his processing of auditory information was poor but could process visual information normally
  • Immediate recall of letters and digits were better when he read them to himself than when read to him aloud, showing his phonological loop was damaged but VSS intact
  • Supports existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores
• What is another strength of the working memory model?

  • Dual-task performance: Baddeley et al. (1975) found when participants performed a visual and verbal task at the same time as well as separately they had similar outcomes
  • But when tasks were BOTH visual or verbal, performance declined substantially because both tasks competed for the same subsystem (VSS) as opposed to no competition with dual tasks
  • Supports existence of separate subsystems for verbal and visual processing
• What is one limitation of the working memory model?

  • Lack of clarity over CE's nature: Baddeley (2003) argued the central executive is the least understood component and needs to be more clearly specified
  • Some psychologists believe the CE may consist of separate subcomponents
  • Shows it is an unsatisfactory component, challenging the integrity of the working memory model
• What is another limitation of the working memory model?

  • Lack of control over important variables: unclear whether KF had other cognitive impairments aside from damage to his PL which may have affected his performance on memory tasks
  • This could include the trauma involved in his motorcycle accident where his injury came from
  • Limits what we can conclude from clinical studies due to being affected by other confounding variables