Working Memory Model

Key Points of the Working Memory Model (WMM)

1. Central Executive (Manager)

   • Controls and coordinates attention and cognitive resources.

   • Allocates information between subsystems (phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad).

   • Responsible for tasks involving attention switching.

   • Supported by Baddeley (1996) study where participants alternating between letters and numbers experienced cognitive interference.

2. Phonological Loop ("Inner Ear" & "Inner Voice")

   • Deals with sound and verbal information.

   • Subcomponents:

     • Phonological Store: Holds sound information passively (like listening to speech).

     • Articulatory Rehearsal Component: Rehearses sounds to maintain information and converts visual input into auditory format.

   Supporting Research:

   • Conrad & Hull (1964): Demonstrated the phonological similarity effect (harder recall for similar-sounding letters).

   • Baddeley, Lewis, and Vallar (1984): Articulatory suppression blocked "inner voice" function and eliminated the phonological similarity effect for written words.

3. Visuospatial Sketchpad ("Inner Eye")

   • Holds and processes visual and spatial information.

   • Supports tasks like remembering shapes or locations.

   • Minimal interference between visual and auditory tasks when using dual-task experiments.

4. Episodic Buffer (Added in 2000)

   • Integrates information from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory (LTM).

   • Helps explain how multimodal information is bound together.

Strengths of the Working Memory Model

• Explains dual-task performance better than the simpler MSM.

• Supported by neuroimaging evidence showing distinct brain regions for different subsystems (e.g., phonological loop vs. visuospatial tasks).

• More sophisticated than MSM, acknowledging complexity in STM operations beyond simple rehearsal.

• Can account for phenomena like articulatory suppression and modality-specific interference.

Limitations of the Working Memory Model

• Complexity makes it difficult to test empirically.

• The roles of the central executive and episodic buffer remain vague.

• Some researchers argue the visuospatial sketchpad should be further subdivided (separate systems for visual and spatial information).

• Does not address LTM or sensory memory.

Comparison with the Multi-Store Model (MSM)