The Working Memory Model (WMM)

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Baddeley and Hitch created a model of working memory it's a model of the STM, the working model. The STM is an active processor in which the central executive attends to and works on wither speech based info and passes it to and from the articulatory - phonological loop or visually coded into and passes it on to the visual system. There are 3 components of this model:

The central executive process info from all sensory routes. This process is attention like and has a limited capacity.

The articulatory phonological loop processes speech-based info. The phonological store focusses on speech perception.

The visuospatial sketchpad is where spatial and visual info is processed.

The episodic buffer was added later by Baddeley. It acts as a back up store which communicates with both LTM and the components of the WMM. The WMM can be tested by interference tasks techniques. The technique is based on the assumption that the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad both have limited capacity to process info. When ppts are asked to perform 2 tasks using the same system, their performances are effected.

An advantage of the WMM is that it suggests the rehearsal is an optional process, which is more realistic than the MSM.

It can explain how we can do 2 tasks at the same time if the tasks are involved with different stores but why we have trouble performing 2 tasks at the same time with the same stores.

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A weakness is that the suggestion that there is a single central executive is theoretical and may be inaccurate.