Working memory model

• Phonological Loop - the slave system which deals with auditory information. As the phonological loop is mainly an acoustic store, confusions can occur here with similar sounding words. It has a limited capacity of around 2 seconds. 1. The phonological store – stores the words you hear 2. The articulatory process – allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds or words in a ‘loop’ to keep them in working memory while they are needed)
• Central Executive - acts as a filter, determining which information in the environment is attended to. - directs information to the slave systems. - limited capacity and can deal with only limited pieces of information at a time
• Episodic buffer - third slave system added in 2000 - Integrates information from the CE, PL and VSS - acts as an extra storage space for information that is both visual and acoustic.
• Visuo-spatial Sketchpad - deals with what information looks like and how it is laid out - it deals with visual and spatial information. This was further sub-divided by Logie (1995) into; 1) a visual cache - storing visual material about form and colour and 2) an inner scribe - handling spatial relationships allowing people to interact successfully with their environment.