The Working Memory Model

• Explanation for the short term memory's organisation and functions
• Concerned with temporary storing and coding of info
• Uses 4 sub units each differing in coding and capacity with one being the coordinater between the three slave systems

CE

• The central executive involves an attentional process to coordinate the three slave systems
• Makes decisions and allocates slave systems to tasks
• Limited processing capactity

Phonological Loop

• Auditory info - written and spoken
• Coding: acoustic, Capacity: 2 seconds worth
• Preserves order info arrives in
• Sub-divided: phonological store: stores words you hear, articulatory process: allows maintanence rehearsal (repeating sound/words in 'loop' (repeating) to keep info in working memory while they are needed)

Visuo-spatial Sketchpad

• Visual/spatial info
• Coding: visual, Capacity: 3/4 objects (Baddeley 2003)
• Sub-divided: visual cache: stores visual data, inner scribe: records arrangement of objects

Episodic Buffer

• Temporary store intergrating the visual, spatial and verbal information processed by others
• Maintains a sense of time sequencing
• Limited capacity of four chunks, storage to CE
• Links to LTM

Supporting Research

• KF brain damage case study
• STM couldn't process verbal info well but could visual info
• EG difficulty with sounds but could recall letters and digits
• Suggests his phonological loop was damaged
• Supports separation of visual and acoustic store
• However, brain damge case studies are unique - less generalisable/reliable

Supporting research

• Dual task performance - Baddeley (possible researcher bias)
• Pps found doing two visual tasks (tracking light and drawing an 'F') at once more difficult than visual and verbal task 
• This is because both tasks compete for the same slave system to process them
• Supports separation of visual and acoustic processing

Supporting research

• Braver et al gave pps task involving CE while having a brain scan (objective data)
• Activity in prefrontal cortex increased as task became harder
• Supports idea of demand on CE as allocating more tasks to slave systems

Limited Explanation

• Baddeley: "The central executive is the most important but the least understood componenent of working memory"
• It's function has a simple explanation of being 'attention'
• Some psychologists think it may be made of sevral components
• Makes model less useful in providing an understanding to the STM