The working memory model - AO1

Question 1

What is the working memory model (WMM)?

Answer 1

Proposed by Baddely and Hitch (1974)
An explanation of how one aspect of memory (STM) is organised and functions. The model consists sof four components.

Question 2

What is the central executive?

Answer 2

It has a “supervisory” role.
It moniters incoming data, focuses and divides out limited attention and allocates tasks to subsystems.
The CE has a very limited processing and does not store infomation.

Question 3

What is the phonological loop (PL)

Answer 3

It is a subsystem that deals with auditory information and preserves the order in which the information arrives. The PL is divided into:
* The phonological store - stores the words you hear
* The articulatory process - allows maintenence rehearsal. The capacity of this loop is believed to be two seconds worth of what you can say

Question 4

What is the visuo spatial sketchpad (VSS)

Answer 4

It is a subsytem that stores visual and/or spatial information when required.
It has limited capacity, according to Baddeley (2003), which is three or four objects.
Logie divided the VSS into:
* The visual cache - stores visual data
* The inner scribe - records the arrangement of objects in the visual field

Question 5

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 5

Added to the model in 2000.
Temporary store for information, intergrating the visual, spatial and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time-sequencing.
It can be seen as the storage component of the CE and has a limited capacity of about four chunks (Baddeley 2012)
* Links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception