Working Memory Model

Phonological loop

Processes auditory (sound) coded information. Includes the:

• Primary acoustic store = the inner ear, holding words recently heard

• Articulatory process = the inner voice, holds information via sub-vocal repetition

*The PL has a limited capacity of what can be said in 2 seconds (word length effect)

Central executive

‘Head of the model’ controls attention, receives sense information and filters this before passing on to sub systems. Limited in capacity (4 items) working on one type of information at a time. But can switch attention between different inputs

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Processes visual and spatially coded information, thought of as the ‘inner eye’. Includes the:

• Visual cache = a passive store of form and colour

• Inner scribe = active store holding the relationships between objects in 3D space

Episodic buffer

Added to WMM in 2000, as the model needed a general store to hold and integrate information from the visuo-spatial store, phonological loop, central executive and long term memory

Who created the working memory model and why?

Created by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) to replace the STM store of the multi store model due to criticisms of the STM…

• STM must be more complex than just a single unitary store that only exists to pass information on to LTM

• STM must be an active processor, holding multiple different types of information simultaneously while being worked on

AO3 - Baddeley (1975) → PL and VSS as separate

Participants were asked to perform two visual tasks, tracking moving lights at the same time as describing the angles of the letter F. Or a visual and verbal task. It was found that performance was much better when the tasks were not using the same processing. This suggests that the visuo-spatial store and phonological loop exist as separate systems and the capacity of the VSS can be overwhelmed with visual information

AO3 - Shallice and Warrington (1970)

Investigated the clinical case of KF. It was found KF has a selective impairment to his verbal short term memory, caused by a brain injury. However the visual functioning of his STM is not affected. This suggests the PL and VSS subsystems are separate processes located in separate brain regions

AO3 - Prabhakaran et al (2000)

Using brain imaging FMRI scans, researchers asked participants to complete tasks with equal amounts of spatial and verbal information. But in one condition the spatial and verbal information was separate, in the other condition the information was integrated. It was found there is more activation in the prefrontal cortex when information is integrated, however posterior brain regions when information was not integrated. This suggests the EB exists and is in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region specialised in the combination and temporary storage of visual and verbal/auditory information

AO3 - Baddeley (1975) → PL capacity

Participants were visually shown word lists and then asked to write them down in the same order. One condition has monosyllabic words eg ‘bond’, ‘yield’, the second condition had polysyllabic, eg ‘opportunity’. It was found the participants could recall more monosyllabic words than polysyllabic words. This suggests the capacity PL is not the number of distinct items, but by the time it takes to say them (approximately 2 seconds). This is known as the word length effect

General AO3 - Not a full explanation

The central executive has been criticised by other psychologists as a concept that does not have a full explanation of its function. Baddeley admits the concept needs development, and the inclusion of the episodic buffer is part of this

General AO3 - Research used by psychologists

The multi store model sees STM as a passive store of information, while the working memory model seems more accurate in describing how memory is used as an active processor. Psychologists often now refer to working memory instead of short term memory

General AO3 - Artificial studies

Research in this area of psychology, while generally lab based, is highly controlled with strong internal validity. There are issues with external validity, most studies lack mundane realism (unrealistic/artificial) and therefore may not be generalised to how we use memory instead day to day life

General AO3 - Use of inferences

It is impossible to directly observe the processes of memory described in models like the working memory models. This means inferences must be made which are assumptions about cognitive processes, these assumptions could be incorrect