Working memory 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
• Central executive


  The part of the working memory model that pays attention to information from the senses and controls the subsystems
• Phonological loop


  Processes auditory information like sounds and words, consisting of a phonological store (inner ear) and articulatory process (inner voice)
• Visuospatial sketchpad


  Processes visual and spatial information, consisting of a visual cache (passive store for forms and colour) and inner scribe (active store for 3D relationships)
• Episodic buffer


  Integrates and stores information from visual, acoustic and long-term memory stores
• Coding: Phonological loop is acoustic, visuospatial sketchpad is visual
• Capacity: Phonological loop is what can be said in 2 seconds, central executive is limited to 4 items +/- 1
• Dual task performance study


  Participants perform two tasks:

  1. Two visual tasks (tracking lights, describing letter F angles)
  2. One visual task and one verbal task

  Participants performed much better on the two different tasks, suggesting separation of visual and verbal processing
• Case study of KF showed selective impairment to verbal short-term memory but not visual, suggesting phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are separate processes
• Brain scanning evidence showed more activation in prefrontal cortex when integrating visual and verbal information, suggesting existence of episodic buffer
• Study found people could remember more short monosyllabic words than longer words, supporting 2 second capacity of phonological loop
• The central executive is responsible for controlling attention, planning, problem-solving, and decision making.
• Long-term memory stores unlimited amounts of information that can be retrieved when needed.
• Working memory has limited capacity and duration, with the ability to hold only four chunks of information at once for up to 20 seconds.
• There are three components of working memory: the phonological loop (for processing auditory information), the visuo-spatial sketchpad (for processing visual and spatial information), and the episodic buffer (which links these two systems).