The working memory model

• The WMM is an explanation of how short-term memory is organized and how it functions.
• The WMM suggests that STM is an active processor of different types of information using sub systems (slave systems), which are coordinated by a central decision making system.
• The WMM is made up of four components

  • central executive
  • phonological loop
  • visuo-spatial sketchpad
  • episodic buffer
• The central executive supervises and has overall control. It monitors incoming data and allocates tasks to the slave systems.
• The CE has limited capacity, however encoding is flexible as it can process information from any sensory system, like vision, hearing, touch, taste or smell.
• The phonological loop processes auditory information and deals with verbal information. It keeps the order at which the info arrived.
• Encoding in the phonological loop is acoustic, capacity is about two seconds worth of what you can say.
• The PL is sub-divided into two stores

  • the phonological store - stores the words that you hear
  • the articulatory control system - allows maintenance rehearsal, repeating sounds to keep them in the working memory while they're needed.
• the visuo-spatial sketchpad processes visual and spatial information, encoding is visual and spatial. Provides a bridge from working memory to long-term memory.
• the VSS has a capacity of three to four objects.
• The VSS is divided into two stores

  • the visual cache - stores a limited amount of visual data briefly
  • the inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in the visual field.
• The episodic buffer is a temporary store of information.
• The EB integrates visual, spatial and verbal information from other stores. It also provides a bridge between the working memory and the long-term memory.
• The EB maintains a sense of time sequencing, recording events (episodes) that are happening.
• The EB links to the long-term memory for information. Encoding is flexible and it has a capacity of about four chunks.