Working Memory Model

756 Words4 Pages
Baddeley and Hitch developed a multi-store model of the short term memory called the working memory model. The model consists of three components which make up the short term memory. The central executive is a key feature of the whole store as it allocates the information to the two “slave systems” which are the visuospatial spatial sketchpad and the articulatory - phonological loop. The VSS stores visual and spatial information. Mental and visual images are an example. The articulatory - phonological loop deals with speech based information and it is split into two components; the phonological store and the articulatory control process. The phonological store (inner ear) holds information in a speech base form. The articulatory control process (inner voice) is used for the rehearsal and storage of verbal information. Evidence for the WMM comes from an experiment conducted by Baddeley and Hitch (1976). The participants were asked to perform two tasks at the same time (dual task technique). The participants were required to repeat a list of numbers whilst answering true or false questions. The results found that as the number of digits increased the participants took longer in answering the questions. Also they did not make mistakes in the answers as the number of digits increased. The two components of the WMM that were used were the central executive for answering questions and the phonological loop for the digit repeating task. However it was a lab experiment therefore it is replicable so it is more reliable although, it lacks mundane realism so the results cannot be generalised to everyday situations as we do not use the dual task technique in our everyday lives. More evidence comes from the case study of KF. KF was a brain damaged patient from a motorcycle accident which had damaged his short term memory. He had problems with verbal information but not with
Open Document