Baddely and Hitch (1974) theorised that STM must be made up of several components all of which are involved in processes other than simple storage.

Baddely and Hitch therefore developed the Working Memory Model (another name for STM)

What is Working Memory? Short-Term Memory (ONLY) - it is a workspace where a variety of operations (auditory and visual) can be carried out.

Baddely and Hitch saw Working Memory functioning in the following ways: The Central Executive: Is a supervisory component (the slave driver). It has overall control of working memory. Capacity: limited, but processes information from any sensory system (vision, hearing, touch, taste or smell). Responsibilities: Monitors information coming in from different sources Decides what to pay attention to Allocates tasks to the slave systems Essentially, it is in charge of attention and directs information to its ‘slave components’. It is the most important and most flexible component of working memory.

Slave system 1: Phonological Loop The ‘inner voice’ – it deals with auditory information (what you hear). Consists of a phonological store which holds words that are heard. And an ‘articulatory loop’ which allows maintenance rehearsal (i.e. repeating words in your head – your ‘inner voice’). Capacity of Articulatory Loop: 2 seconds worth of what you can say Think of when a friend is saying something and you are waiting to speak. Your articulatory loop will be rehearsing the first part of the sentence.

Evidence for the phonological loop and articulatory process Remember the following and write them down in your jotter:

Some Bond Harm Yield Hate

Association Considerable Representative Individual Suspicious

Twice Worst Wit Dog Fair

Opportunity Immediately Organisation University Miserable

Which did you perform better on - the red or the black words? Some Bond Harm Yield Hate Association Considerable Representative Individual Suspicious Twice Worst Wit Dog Fair Opportunity Immediately Organisation University Miserable Which did you perform better on - the red or the black words?

Word- length effect The capacity of the phonological loop is determined by the length of time it takes to say the words. If the word is polysyllabic (more than one syllable), it is harder to remember. This makes it hard to remember (store) a list of long words such as ‘association’ and ‘representative’ because the rehearsal of the word takes longer than 2 seconds.

Word-length effect: Central Executive Capacity: Responsibilities: Phonological store/articulatory loop: The phonological loop The visuo-spatial sketchpad Episodic Buffer Visual cache: Inner scribe: What is dual-task performance?

Slave system 2: The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (VSS) The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad stores visual information for when it is required – sometimes referred to as ‘the inner eye’. It holds visual and spatial information. It has 2 subsystems: the visual cache – stores visual data (things that you see). The inner scribe: records the arrangement of objects in the visual field (where they are).

In your jotter, using arrows draw your journey from home to school In your jotter, using arrows draw your journey from home to school. Whilst doing so, recite ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’

Visuo-spatial sketch pad You were able to do this because you were using different components of your working memory: Phonological loop Visuo-spatial sketch pad

Now, using arrows draw your journey from home to school, but whilst doing so, describe the journey backwards.

Why was this difficult? You were trying to use your inner scribe (organising the journey with arrows) at the same time as your visual cache (stored visual data i.e. how to get from college to home, backwards). This shows that capacity of the Visuo-spatial Sketchpad is limited as it cannot deal with two tasks at the same time.

Dual Task Performance Baddely and Hitch state that people can perform two tasks at the same time as long as the tasks use different components of the working memory system. However, if they are using the same parts of the same component, processing will slow down.

Think of a memory you have. Consider: What sounds there were What you could see Where the people/objects were What was said All of these will have been dealt with by different parts of working memory. As they are all separate and dealt with separately, how do they form a memory?

Episodic Buffer – added to the model by Baddely in 2000 The central executive, phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad have very limited capacity. In order to start to form a memory, the episodic buffer will process the information from all of these components and integrate it (put it all together). It links working memory to LTM.

Find someone who knows: What the phonological loop is What the visual cache is Two responsibilities of the central executive What will happen to processing when two components of the working memory are used simultaneously What working memory is What the word-length effect is Who came up with the working memory model and in which year What the inner scribe is

What the phonological loop is What the visual cache is Two responsibilities of the central executive What will happen to processing when two components of the working memory are used simultaneously What working memory is What the word-length effect is Who came up with the working memory model and in which year What the inner scribe is