Working memory model

• Baddeley and Hitch (1974)


  Developed the Working Memory Model (WMM), which focuses specifically on the workings of short-term memory (STM)
• Atkinson and Shiffrin's Multi-Store Model of memory (MSM)

  Criticised for over-simplifying STM (as well as LTM) as a single storage system
• Working Memory Model (WMM)

  • STM is composed of three, limited capacity stores
  • Central Executive - manages attention, controls information from the two 'slave stores'
  • Articulatory-Phonological Loop - temporarily retains language-based information
  • Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad - temporarily retains visual and spatial information
• Episodic buffer


  Facilitates communication between the central executive and long term memory
• Dual-task technique (or 'interference tasks')


  Performance is measured as participants perform two tasks simultaneously
• If one store is utilised for both tasks

  Task performance is poorer than when they are completed separately, due to the store's limited capacity
• If the tasks require different stores

  Performance would be unaffected when performing them simultaneously