STM- Baddeley & Hitch (1974)

STM- Baddeley & Hitch (1974)

1. Decided to try and approach STM memory research in a novel way

   • They devised the 'dual task method'.
     • They asked participants to perform a reasoning task (a sentence-checking task) while simultaneously reciting aloud a list of 6 digits.
       • If the digit span really is a measure of maximum STM capacity (multi-store model), participants would be expected to show impaired performance on the reasoning task because their STM would be fully occupied with retaining the 6 digits
         • However, they found that participants made very few errors on either the reasoning or the digit span task although the speed of verifying the sentences was slightly slower than when the task was done alone

2. Baddeley and Hitch concluded that the short-term memory must have more than one component and must be involoved in processes other than simple storage eg reasoning, understanding and learing

   • They envisaged STM as a sort of workspace where a variety of operations could be carried out on both old and new memories
     • Crucially for the model, they concluded that two tasks can be carried out simultaneously in STM provided that they are being dealt with by different parts of the memory system
       • They envisaged LTM as a more passive store that maintains previously learned material for use by the STM when needed. They formulated their ideas into the working memory model