The Working Memory model

who provided the model of short term memory ?

Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

what do baddeley and Hitch believe about short term memory ?

stm has a number of stores rather than one

what are the components of the WMM?

• central executive 

• episodic buffer

• visuospatial sketch pad 

• phonological loop

what are the components within the phonolgical loop ?

• articulatory control system (inner voice )

• phonological store (inner ear)

how does WMM work when trying to work out how many Windows are in your house ?

• mental image of house created 

• image created by visuospatial sketchpad

• tally of Windows held by phonological loop specifically articulatory system as counted in head 

• supervised by central executive allocating tasks to each component and recognises when conclusion is reached 

when is the WMM most optimum ?

• when both tasks require different components 

different task modalities eg visual , acoustic , verbal because each store has individual attentional capacity to use for a task so enough to manage both tasks 

when does WMM become problematic ?

when both tasks require the same component

each component limited in attention 

what is the function and property of the central executive ?

 manages components and decides what to focus on, organizing tasks, and directing information to the right places in your mind. It also deals with cognitive tasks such as mental arithmetic and problem-solving.

what is the function and property of the episodic buffer ?

Acts as a mental connector, bringing together information from different sources (visual, verbal, memories) to help you form complete stories or experiences, and links this to your long-term memory.

records info as episodes , so time sequenced

what is the function and property of the visuospatial sketch pad ?

Works like your mind’s eye, handling visual images and spatial relationships—like picturing a room layout or finding your way around a new place.

what is the function and properties of the phonolgical loop?

coordinates auditory info and has two parts: Inner ear: Briefly holds words or sounds you hear (for about 1–2 seconds). Inner voice: Repeats words or sounds in your mind, helping you remember them.

what study provides evidence for the working memory model ?

• Baddeley 1976

• Participants were asked to perform a digit span task (repeating a list of numbers) and a verbal reasoning task (answering true or false questions) at the same time

• As the number of digits increased, participants took longer to answer the true/false questions 

• Baddeley concluded that the verbal reasoning task used the CE and the digit span task used the PL

What is another study that gives evidence for the model ?

Sharrice and Warrington 1970

outline sharrice and warrington’s study

• KF suffered a brain injury after which his STM was severely impaired

• KF struggled to process verbal/auditory information but his ability to recall visual information was unaffected

  • This is evidence that there are different components in the working memory which code for verbal/auditory information and visual information

what is a limitation for the model ?

• research supporting, lacks mundane realism 

• The dual-task performance effect relies on highly controlled lab conditions using tasks that are unrelated to real-life scenarios

This lack of 'realness' lowers the ecological validity of research in this field

what are the sub divisions of the visuospatial sketch pad ?

• visual cache - stores visual data eg shapes

• inner scribe - stores the arrangement of objects within the visual field of view