The working memory model

The working memory model

1. The WMM is an explanation of how the short term memory is organised and how it functions.

   • Clinical evidence - Shallice and Warrington's case study of KF who had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information normally. This suggests his phonological loop had been damaged but the rest was intact. This supports the existence of a separate visual and acoustic store.
     • However, evidence from brain damaged patients may not be reliable because it concerns unique cases with patients who have had traumatic experiences.
   • Dual task performance - studies of this support the separate existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad. Baddeley et al. showed participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks than doing both a visual and verbal task at the same time. This is due to both visual tasks competing for the same slave system but there is no competition when doing a visual and verbal task simultaneously. This means there must be a separate slave system that processes visual input.
   • Lack of clarity over central executive - cognitive psychologists suggest this component of the WMM is unsatisfactory and doesn't really explain anything. It needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply 'attention'. This means the WMM hasn't been fully explained.

2. Central executive

   • The central executive is essentially an attentional process that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to tasks.
     • The slave systems are the other 3 systems described
   • It has a very limited processing capacity
   • Phonological loop
     • This deals with auditory information (acoustic coding) and preserves the order in which the information arrives.
     • Phonological store - stores the words you hear
     • Articulatory process - allows maintenance rehearsal (capacity of 2 seconds worth of what you can say)
   • Visuo-spatial sketchpad
     • Stores visual and/or spatial information when required
     • Limited capacity (3/4 objects)
     • Visual cache - stores visual data
     • Inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in the visual field
   • Episodic buffer
     • A temporary store for information, integrating the visual, spatial and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing
       • i.e. recording events that are happening
     • Limited capacity of about 4 chunks

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