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 phonologicalstore (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:
Two visual tasks (tracking lights, describing letter F angles)
One visual task and one verbal task
Participants performed much better on the twodifferent 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 prefrontalcortex when integrating visual and verbal information, suggesting existence of episodicbuffer
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 episodicbuffer (which links these two systems).