working memory model

• Working memory model (WMM)


  An explanation of how one aspect of memory (short-term memory) is organised and how it functions
• WMM

  • Concerned with the 'mental space' that is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating information
• Components of the WMM

  • Central executive
  • Phonological loop
  • Visuo-spatial sketchpad
  • Episodic buffer
• Central executive (CE)

  Has a 'supervisory' role, monitors incoming data, focuses and divides our limited attention and allocates subsystems to tasks
• Phonological loop (PL)

  Deals with auditory information (coding is acoustic) and preserves the order in which the information arrives
• Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)

  Stores visual and/or spatial information when required
• Episodic buffer (EB)


  A temporary store for information, integrating the visual, spatial, and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing
• CE has a very limited processing capacity and does not store information
• PL is subdivided into the phonological store (which stores the words you hear) and the articulatory process (which allows maintenance rehearsal to keep them in working memory)
• PL capacity is to be two seconds' worth of what you can say
• VSS is subdivided into the visual cache (which stores visual data) and the inner scribe (which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field)
• VSS capacity is about three or four objects
• EB links working memory to long-term memory and wider cognitive processes
• EB capacity is about four chunks