the working memory model (wmm)

who proposed the working memory model and when?

baddeley and hitch in 1974

what is the wmm a model of?

short term memory

what did the wmm replace the idea of?

a unitary STM

what does the wmm suggest about the STM with example

that the STM is more active and complex than the MSM proposed e.g. stm can complete two different tasks at the same time

how many components does the wmm consist of?

4 main components

what is the central executive and its function

the ‘supervisory component’ of the wmm which directs attention to incoming information and starts off the rehearsal process

what information can the central executive code

information from any modality (e.g. acoustic and visual)

storage of the central executive

the CE has a very limited storage but can delegate information to its 3 ‘slave systems’

how else does the central executive use the different slave systems apart from delegating information to them?

it can also co-ordinate the activity needed to carry out more than one task at a time using different slave systems

what are the slave systems?

phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer

what is the function of the phonological loop?

the PL codes and acts as temporary storage (or a rehearsal loop) for holding acoustic/auditory information

what does the phonological loop preserve?

it preserves the order in which the information arrives

capacity of the PL

limited capacity, can be subdivided into the phonological store and the articulatory process

what is the phonological store also known as?

the inner ear

function of the phonological store

the phonological store is linked to speech perception and rehearses sounds you hear (e.g. words)

what is the articulatory process also known as?

the inner voice

function of the articulatory process

the articulatory process is linked to speech production which holds and silently repeats (rehearses) the words we are preparing to speak

what is the visuospatial sketchpad known as?

the inner eye

function of the visuospatial sketchpad

the visuospatial sketchpad codes visual information and spatial information

what is visual information?

what objects look like in terms of form and colour

what is spatial information?

the physical relationship between objects

what is the capacity of the visuospatial sketchpad?

limited capacity of 3-4 objects

when was the episodic buffer added to the wmm?

in 2000

what is the episodic buffer often seen as?

the storage component of the CE that integrates information from the CE, PL and VSS as well as linking working memory to LTM

what is the capacity of the episodic buffer

it has a limited capacity

what kind of information can the episodic buffer code?

information from any modality whilst maintaining a sense of time sequencing which allows it to record events (episodes) which are happening as a single memory rather than separate strands