working memeory model

• Working memory model


  An improved version of the short-term memory store in the multi-store model
• Working memory model


  • Able to hold and work on both auditory and visual information in short-term memory
• Short-term memory store


  Passive store that just holds information and passes it on to long-term memory
• Working memory model


  An active processor that processes and combines multiple types of information
• Components of the working memory model

  • Central executive
  • Visuospatial sketchpad
  • Phonological loop
  • Episodic buffer
• Central executive


  Pays attention to information from the senses and controls the other components
• Phonological loop


  Processes auditory information like sounds and words
• Phonological loop


  • Phonological store (inner ear) holds words heard
  • Articulatory process (inner voice) used for maintenance rehearsal
• Visuospatial sketchpad


  Responsible for processing visual and spatial information
• Visuospatial sketchpad


  • Visual cache (passive store for forms and colour)
  • Inner scribe (active store for relationships between objects in 3D space)
• Episodic buffer


  Integrates and stores information from visual, acoustic and long-term memory stores
• AQA specification only requires knowledge of coding and capacity for the working memory model, not the features of each store
• Coding: Phonological loop is acoustic, Visuospatial sketchpad is visual
• Capacity of phonological loop

  What can be said in 2 seconds
• Capacity of central executive

  4 items plus or minus 1
• Dual task performance study

  • Participants performed better on a visual and verbal task compared to two visual tasks, suggesting separation of phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad
• Case study of KF

  • Selective impairment to verbal short-term memory but not visual, suggesting separation of phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad
• Brain scanning study

  • More brain activation in prefrontal cortex when integrating visual and verbal information, suggesting existence of episodic buffer
• Word length effect study

  • People can remember more short monosyllabic words than longer words, supporting 2 second capacity of phonological loop
• Central executive is a criticism as it acts as a 'homunculus' - a little man in the brain performing unexplained functions
• Working memory model is more accurate than short-term memory store in describing active processing of information
• Reliance on laboratory studies limits external validity and mundane realism
• Inferences made about underlying processes may be incorrect