working memory model ao1

• Working Memory Model


  Another name for Short-Term Memory (STM), it is a workspace where a variety of operations (auditory and visual) can be carried out
• Working Memory Model


  • Consists of the Central Executive (supervisory component that has overall control), Phonological Loop (deals with auditory information), Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (stores visual and spatial information), and Episodic Buffer (integrates information from the other components)
• Baddeley and Hitch (1974) contested the idea of a unitary STM using the case of KF, who had a digit span of two but could still transfer new information to his LTM
• Dual task technique


  Look at two letters and circle whether a statement about them is true or false, while also reciting numbers
• If digit span is a measure of STM capacity

  Participants would be expected to show impaired performance on the reasoning task because their STM would be fully occupied
• Baddeley and Hitch found participants made few errors on either the digit span or reasoning task, though the speed was slightly slower
• Baddeley and Hitch concluded that STM must be made up of several components all of which are involved in processes other than simple storage
• Central Executive


  Supervisory component that has overall control of working memory, monitors information, decides what to pay attention to, and allocates tasks to the slave systems
• Central Executive


  • Limited capacity, but processes information from any sensory system (vision, hearing, touch, taste or smell)
• Phonological Loop


  The 'inner ear' that deals with auditory information, consisting of a phonological store that holds words heard and an articulatory loop that allows maintenance rehearsal
• Phonological Loop


  • Capacity is determined by the length of time it takes to say the words, making it hard to remember long words
• Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad


  Stores visual information, with a visual cache that stores visual data and an inner scribe that records the arrangement of objects
• The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad has limited capacity, as shown by the difficulty in drawing a journey backwards while reciting a song
• People can perform two tasks at the same time as long as the tasks use different components of the working memory system
• Episodic Buffer


  Processes and integrates information from the central executive and the sub-systems, linking working memory to long-term memory