working memory model

• Components of STM in the WMM


  • Central executive
  • Phonological loop
  • Visuo-spatial sketchpad
  • Episodic buffer
• Central executive


  An 'attentional process' with a very limited processing capacity, whose role is to allocate tasks to the 3 slave systems
• Phonological loop


  Processes auditory information and allows for maintenance rehearsal, made up of the articulatory process and the phonological loop
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad


  Combines the visual and spatial information processed by other stores, giving us a 'complete picture', divided into the inner scribe and visual cache, capacity around 4-5 chunks
• Episodic buffer


  Integrates all types of data processed by the other stores and is the storage component of the central executive, crucial for linking STM to LTM
• The central executive has not been precisely defined, the term 'process' is vague, and the central executive may be made up of several sub-components or even be part of a larger component itself in working memory
• This lack of a comprehensive explanation for each component of WMM draws doubts about the accuracy of its depiction of working memory
• KF had very poor STM recall for auditory stimuli, but increased STM recall for visual stimuli


  Suggests that the components of memory which process auditory and visual stimuli are separate (as described in the WMM through the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad)
• Dual-task performance, where each participant must undertake a visual and verbal task simultaneously, shows decreased performance


  Supports the idea that the central executive has a very limited processing capacity and that the slave systems are in competition with each other for these tasks and resources
• Increasing cognitive load processed by the central executive (as marked by increasing task difficulty)


  Increasing levels of activation in the prefrontal cortex
• This supports the idea that the central executive has the role of allocating tasks to slave systems and has a limited processing capacity, as reflected by the increased brain activation levels, thus suggesting that the WMM is accurate in its mechanism of the central executive
• The central executive is responsible for controlling attention, planning, problem solving, and coordinating information from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer.