working memory model

• visuo-spatial sketchpad: stores visual and/or spatial information when required (like planning a journey to school in your head)

  inner scribe: deals with the spatial relationship between objects

  visual cache: stores visual information (e.g form, shape, colour)
• phonological loop: deals with auditory information and the order of information

  • the phonological store - stores the words you hear
  • the articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds or words in a loop to keep them in the working memory model while they are needed. capacity of this loop is believed to be 2 seconds worth of what you can say
• episodic buffer: Integrates information from all other components of working memory.

  function: Combines data from various memory stores into a unified 'episode' for specific events.

  • baddeley added this component later as he realised that the model had no general storage facility
• central executive - drives the system

  • Decides how attention is directed to the two slave systems 
  • Allocates the resources 
  • Has no storage capacity 
  • Has limited capacity so cannot attend to many things at once  
• baddeley, Thompson and buchanan: word length effect

  • Method: Presented words briefly
  • Condition 1: 5 short, one-syllable, familiar words (e.g., hit, off)
  • Condition 2: 5 long, polysyllabic words (e.g., organisation, communication)
  • Findings: Average correct recall showed better memory for short words
  • Implication: Articulatory loop's limitation is not on the number of items but on the time taken to say them
  • Interpretation: Word length effect suggests people can store fewer long words due to the time it takes to articulate them.
• P - one strength is support from shallice and warrington's case study of patient KF

  E - KF had impaired auditory short-term memory but intact visual processing post-brain injury. For instance, his immediate recall of letters and digits was notably better when presented visually compared to when presented acoustically.

  E - This contrast suggests separate memory stores, with KF's phonological loop damaged and visuo-spatial sketchpad intact.

  L - Thus, KF's case supports the idea of distinct memory systems, advancing our understanding of brain memory organisation.
• P - another strength is that studies of dual task performance support the separate existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad

  E - Participants performed visual and verbal tasks simultaneously. Their performance remained steady when tasks were mixed but dropped significantly when both tasks were visual or verbal.

  E - The drop suggests competition for the same subsystem (VSS or phonological loop, PL). Yet, no such competition occurred when mixing verbal and visual tasks.

  L - strengthening the idea of distinct subsystems for visual and verbal processing in working memory.
• P - a limitation is the central executive facing a significant weakness due to its lack of clarity in understanding.

  E - While responsible for allocating attention and directing processing effort, the mechanisms behind these functions and the CE's decision-making process between phonological and visual systems remain unclear.

  E - This uncertainty hinders its ability to explain experimental results, weakening its validity as a concept within the model.

  L - Thus, the vague nature of the CE requires further refinement to improve the model's explanatory power.