working memory model

• Central executive

  • Controls the WMM rather like the 'boss' in a business
  • All information passes to the Central Executive (CE) which then decides which component should process it
  • The components can only communicate with each other via the CE: they cannot 'talk' to each other
  • The CE is modality free: this means it can process information from any of the 5 senses (auditory, visual etc.)
  • It can be inferred from research (Robbins et al. 1996) that the CE may be involved in highly complex tasks such as playing chess
• Phonological loop

  • Holds information in the form of speech/sound
  • There are two parts to the PL: the phonological store/inner ear which deals with speech perception and the articulatory control process/ inner voice which processes speech production and rehearses verbal information
  • There is more known about this component than any of the others as it is the easiest of the slave systems to test
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad/scratchpad

  • Concerned with visual and spatial information which it organises into separate components
  • There are two parts to the VSS: the inner scribe which deals with spatial information and the visual cache which stores information about form, shape and colour
• Episodic buffer

  • A temporary storage device used to integrate information from the VSS and PL
  • The EB ensures that all the information from the slave systems links together and forms a cohesive whole which makes sense
• The episodic buffer (EB) was added to the WMM in 2000
• Dual-task studies

  • Two tasks are possible at the same time if they use different slave systems e.g. the PL and the VSS: attempting two tasks using one slave system overloads that system
• Dual-task studies

  • Baddeley and Hitch (1976) and Robbins et al. (1996)
• Case study


  • The case study of brain-damaged patient KF (Shallice & Warrington, 1970)
• Strengths of the WMM

  • It extends on the work of the MSM and explains the complexity of STM with the tasks it can perform
  • Research on dual tasks (Baddeley 1973) supports the idea of separate components and how they can be overloaded
• Limitations of the WMM

  • The WMM is vague on the link between STM and LTM
  • It is difficult to measure the CE which means that not much is actually known about it (although this may well change as more research is conducted on it)