The Working Memory Model

Central excecutive (CE)

• Co-ordinates slave systems and allocates resources.
• Very limited storage.

Phonological loop (PL)

• Auditory information - phonological store and articulatory process (maintenance rehearsal).

Viso-spatial sketchpad (VSS)

• Visual information - visual cache (store) and inner scribe (spatial arrangement).

Episodic buffer (EB)

• Integrates processing of slave systems and records the order of events.
• Linked to LTM.

Clinical evidence

• KF had poor auditory memory but good visual memory.
• Damaged PL but VSS fine.

Dual-task performance

• Difficult to do two visual tasks at same time, but one visual and one verbal is okay (Baddeley et al.)

Lack of clarity over the CE

• Not yet fully explained, probably has different components.

Evaluation extra

• Studies of the word-length effect support the PL
• Brain scanning studies support the WMM