Working memory model

• The working memory model is a representation of STM. it suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using subunits coordinated by a central decision-making system.
• The working memory model includes: Central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the episodic buffer
• Central executive: (CE)

  The CE has a 'supervisory' role. It monitors incoming data, focuses and divides our limited attention and allocates 'slave systems' to tasks. The CE has a very limited processing capacity and doesn't store information.
• Phonological loop: (PL)

  One of the slave systems is the PL. It deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which the information arrives. The PL is subdivided into:

  • The phonological store which stores the words you hear
  • The articulatory process, which allows maintenance rehearsal. The capacity of this loop is believed to be 2 seconds' worth of what you can say
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad: (VSS)

  The second slave system is the VSS. It stores visual and/or spatial informational when required. For example, if you are asked to work out how many windows there are on your house you visualise it. It also has a limited capacity, which according to Baddeley is about 3 or 4 objects. Robert Logie subdivided the VSS into:

  • The visual cache, which stores visual data.
  • The inner scribe, which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field
• Episodic buffer:

  The third slave system is the episodic buffer (EB)

  • The EB is a temporary storage device used to integrate information from the Visuo-spatial sketchpad and phonological loop
  • The EB ensures that all the information from the slave systems links together and forms a cohesive whole which makes sense
  • can be seen as the storage component of the central executive and has a limited capacity of about 4 chunks.
• EVALUATION OF WMM:

  1. one strength is the case study of KF, who had poor STM ability for auditory info after a brain injury but could process visual info normally. This finding strongly supports the existence of separate visual and acoustic memory stores.
• EVALUATION OF WMM:

  1. Another strength is that studies of dual-task performance support the separate existence of the visuospatial sketchpad. When ppts carried out a visual and verbal task simultaneously, their performance on each was similar to when they carried out the tasks separately. But when both tasks were visual or verbal, performance on both declined substantially. this is because both visual tasks compete for the same slave subsystem (VSS). This shows there must be a separate slave system that processes visual input.
• EVALUATION OF THE WMM:

  • A weakness is that the WMM is vague on the link between STM and LTM
  • It is difficult to measure the CE which means that not much is actually known about it (although this may well change as more research is conducted on it)