Working memory model

• Working Memory Model (WMM)

  Proposed by Baddeley & Hitch in 1974, a cognitive theoretical model which describes working memory as a temporary storage system under attentional control that underpins our capacity for complex thought
• The WMM suggests that working memory does not consist of a single unitary store, but rather consists of active component stores holding different pieces of information at any one time while they are being worked on
• Working Memory has replaced Short-Term Memory (STM) as the term used to describe this temporary storage system
• Dual Processing in STM

  • Participants performed less well when asked to perform two similar tasks simultaneously compared to two dissimilar tasks, suggesting sound and vision are processed separately
• Performing two visual or two verbal tasks at the same time


  • Listening to music while talking to a friend
  • Watching TV while listening to a podcast
• Performing a visual task at the same time as a verbal task

  • Scrolling through social media while listening to music
  • Listening to your friend talking while reading a book
• Central Executive (CE)


  The control centre which deals with incoming information and sends it to the sub-systems, has a non-specific modality and processes information from any of the five senses
• Role of the Central Executive


  • Directs attention to particular tasks, monitors and coordinates information, makes decisions to allocate resources to the slave systems
• The Central Executive has a very limited capacity as it can't attend to too much information at once, and has virtually no capacity to store data
• Complex cognitive functions performed by the Central Executive

  • Mental arithmetic, problem solving, comprehension testing, switching attention between tasks (Stroop Effect)
• Phonological Loop


  Processes sound-based information, consists of a Phonological Store which holds the memory of sounds/words, and an Articulatory Control System which rehearses information through sub-vocalization
• Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad


  Temporary storage system used for the manipulation, planning and understanding of visual and spatial information, has a limited capacity of 3-4 objects, consists of a Visual Cache which stores visual data and an Inner Scribe which stores spatial and movement data
• Episodic Buffer


  General storage component added in 2000 to explain how information from short-term memory can be integrated into long-term memory, holds information as episodes and scenes and maintains a sense of time
• Interference effects demonstrate the limitations of working memory, such as proactive interference where prior learning impairs the ability to recall new information