The Working Memory Model

The Working Memory Model

• Baddley and Hitch designed the working memory model because they thought...
  • If you do two things at once and they are both visual for example, you will perform these tasks worse than if you did just one of these tasks
  • But if you do two things at once and one is visual and the other is auditory for example, there is no interference and the tasks are performed just as well as if they were performing the tasks seperately
• Central Executive...
  • The central executive directs attention to specific stores in the working memory model
  • It controls all the stores in the working memory 
  • The central executive recieves information from sensory stores and the short term memory
  • It has a very limited capacity; it can't do too many things at once and it doesn't have the capacity to store information
• Phonological Loop...
  • This stores auditory information and controls the order of information
  • Baddley divided the phonological loop into...
    • The phonological store which holds the words you hear, like your inner ear
    • An articulatory process which is used for words that are seen or heard. These words are silently repeated like an inner voice, this is a form of maintenance rehearsal
• Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad...
  • This is used when you need to complete a spatial task.
  • The visuo-spatial sketchpad stores spatial and visual information temporarily.
  • Visual information = what things look like
  • Spatial information = the physicla relationship between things
  • Logie said th evisuo-spatial sketchapd could be divided into...
    • The visual cache which stores information about visual items
    • The inner scribe with deals with spatioal information which stores the arrangement of objects in the visual field
• Episodic Buffer...
  • Baddley and Hitch decided that there needed to be a…