The Working Memory Model

The Working Model of Memory

Created by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. An explanation of how the STM is organised and how it functions

What does the WMM show?

Suggests that STM is made up of the central executive, the phonological loop, the Visuo-spatial sketch pad and the episodic buffer

Central executive

Key component. Supervises and coordinates information to and from the slave systems. Has no storage capacity. Switches attention between tasks in the slave systems. Knows when the task is complete

Phonological loop

Made up of the articulatory loop and phonological store. Holds info in working memory by repeating it, only less than 2 seconds

Articulatory loop

Active rehearsal system where words are maintained by repetition. Repeats info from phonological store, the inner voice

Phonological store

Stores info from sounds, speech and words you hear. Passive storage system that holds spoken info.

Word-length effect

The phonological loop holds the amount of info that you can say in 1.5-2 secs. Discovered by Baddeley in 1975. It is harder to remember longer words since it inhibits rehearsal

Visuo spatial sketch pad

Made up of the inner scribe and visual cache

Inner scribe

Active rehearsal system that processes spatial (space) and movement information

Visual cache

Passive visual store. Stores info about visual form and colour. Has a limited capacity

Episodic Buffer

Added in 2000 by Baddeley. Realised the model needed a general store, the central executive has no storage capacity. An extra storage that has limited capacity. Joins info from each store. Records events happening and time sequences. Can send information to LTM