4. The working memory model

• Baddley and Hitch (1974) -


  - Developed the working memory model
• The working memory model - AO1

  - A representation of the STM. It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using subunits co-ordinated by a central decision-making role.
• Central executive - AO1

  - Supervisory role

  - Monitors Incoming data

  - Focuses and divides our limited attention and allocates 'slave systems to tasks

  - Limited capacity

  - Does not store information
• Phonological loop - AO1

  - First Slave system

  - Deals with auditory information

  - Coding - acoustic

  - Preserves the order in which information arrives

  - Capacity - 2 seconds worth what you can say
• Phonological loop subdivided into - AO1

  1- Phonological store - words we hear

  2- Articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal
• Visuo-Spatical Sketchpad - AO1

  - Second slave system

  - Stores visual and spatial information

  - Baddley (2003) - Limited capacity of 3 to 4 items
• Visuospatial sketchpad subdivided into - AO1


  - Robert Logie (1995) - subdivided this store into

  1- Visual cashe - stores visual data

  2- Inner scribe - record the arrangement of objects in the visual field
• Episodic buffer - AO1

  - Third slave system

  - Added by Baddley in 2000

  - Bring together materials from the other sub-systems into a single memory

  - To achieve a time-sequencing

  - Produces a single memory which all the verbal, spatial and visual information from the other slave systems

  - Links the working memory to the LTM

  - Baddley (2012) - Limited capacity of 4 chunks
• Clinical evidence 😊 - AO3

  - Shallice and Warrington( 1970) - case study on patient KF

  - brain injury

  - He had poor STM ability for auditory sounds but could process visual information just fine

  - Recall of letters and digits was better when he read them (visual) than when they were read to him (auditory)

  - His phonological loop was damaged, but his VSS was intact
• CP to clinical evidence 🙁- AO3

  - It is unclear whether KF had any other cognitive impairments

  - Which might have impacted his performance on memory tasks

  - Injury was caused by a motorcycle accident

  - Trauma involved may have affected his cognitive performance apart from his brain injury
• Dual-task performance 😊- AO3

  - Baddley (1975) - participants carried out visual and verbal tasks at the same time - dual tasks

  - Performance was similar to when tasks were carried out separately

  - But when they were asked to perform both visual tasks performance declined substantially

  - Both Visual tasks were competing for the same slave system - VSS

  - There is no competition when we're performing separate visual and verbal tasks

  Separate slave systems for visual (VSS) and verbal (PL)
• Nature of the central executive - 😊

  - Lack of clarity over the nature of the central executive

  - Baddley (2003) - recognised this when he said thet the central executive was the most important but the least understood component of the working memory

  - Some psychologists consist of separate components

  - An unsatisfactory component and challenged the integrity of WMM