Working memory

• Baddeley & Hitch 1974 - working compared to STM


  working memory not just passive = actively processed
• Baddeley's Memory of Working Memory 


  • Phonological loop - stores auditory info
  • visuospatial sketchpad - stores visual & spatial info
  • Central executive - integrates information from other components (in episodic buffer)
  • widely distributed
• Evidence for Phonological Loop: Acoustic Confusion - Baddeley 1966


  • accuracy worse for acoustically similar items than acoustically dissimilar
  • = items stored phonologically (subvocal rehearsal)
  • = phonological characteristics important
• Evidence of Visuospatial sketchpad

  Contents of Phonological Loop do not interfere with Visuospatial memory
• Evidence of Visuospatial Sketchpad - Baddely & Hitch 1974


  • Remember sequences of 0-8 digits while performing a spatial reasoning task
  • Size of digit load did not affect spatial reasoning errors 
  • phonological loop doesn't interfere with visuospatial sketchpad = separate areas
• subvocal rehearsal 


  • commonly used verbal /acoustic encoding to remember visual objects
  • given picture - usually turn into words
• Brandimonte, Hitch, Bishop (1992)


  • Memorized 6 objects. Later, told to visualize object & subtract part of it
  • Articulatory Suppression Group: say “la-la-la” while memorizing objects = prevents turn into words = helps visual memory

  Control Group  :  45 %  accuracy

  AS Group  :  63 % = evidence of VSS & PL distinction
• Prefrontal cortex 


  Central Executive
• Anterior Cingulate Cortex - ACC


  Attention Controller
• Parietal Lobe 


  Episodic buffer

  (perceptual processing)
• Broca's & Wernicke's 


  Phonological loop
• Occipital Lobe 


  Visuospatial sketchpad
• Atkinson & Shiffrin Multi Store Model - 1968 


  Outlines memory structure with 3 main stores: sensory, STM, LTM

  • Memory processes involve attention, encoding, rehearsal, and retrieval
  • Information moves between stores through these processes.
• Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968 - sensory memory


  Holds sensory information briefly (fraction of a second) before either decaying or transferring to STM
• Atkinson & Shiffrin Multi Store Model 1968 - STM

  Limited capacity & duration (20-30 s), holds information briefly without rehearsal

  rehearsal transfers information to LTM
• Atkinson & Shiffrin 1968 LTM

  Long-term memory (LTM): Semipermanent storage with theoretically unlimited capacity