Working Memory Model (WMM)

Working Memory Model (WMM)

• Proposed by Baddeley & Hitch in 1974
• A representation of STM (challenges Atkinson & Shiffren's idea that STM is a unitary store)
• 

Central Executive

• 
• 'The boss'
• Monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to tasks
• Limited processing capacity
• Modality free
• Involved in higher mental processes e.g. decision-making
• Most important component but the least understood

Visuo-spatial Sketchpad

• 
• Processes visual and spatial information in a mental space, inner eye
• E.g. allows us to visualise something we need
• Limited capacity - Baddeley in 2003 said it was 3/4 objects
• Logie in 1995 subdivided VSS into visual cache and inner scribe
• Visual Cache:
• Stores visual data
• Inner Scribe:
• Records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Episodic Buffer

• 
• Caption: Helps to remember!
• Added in 2000 by Baddeley
• Temporary store for information
• Pieces information together from other stores
• Links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes e.g. perception

Phonological Loop

• 
• Deals with auditory information (i.e. coding is acoustic) and preserves the order in which the information arrives
• It's subdivided into the phonological store (inner ear) and articulatory loop (inner voice)
• Phonological Store:
• Stores the words we hear
• Articulatory loop:
• Allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds to keep them in working memory while they're needed). Limited capacity and limited duration of 2 seconds

Evaluation

• Strengths:
• Clinical evidence; KF case study - suffered brain damage which led to poor STM ability for verbal information but could still process visual information - suggests phonological loop had been damaged but other areas of memory were intact
• Dual-task studies; supports existence of visuo-spatial sketchpad - Baddeley et al in 1975 - participants had difficulty doing 2 visual tasks at the same time
• Outlines STM in more detail - it has the potential to answer more questions about how STM works and it can stimulate further research
• Weaknesses:
• Only focusses on STM
• Insufficient evidence of the central executive which is seen as the most important component - not a physical component and it's difficult to test