working memory model

Question 1

what are the 6 AO1 points that you must know for the working memory model?

Answer 1

-Developed by Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
-Central Executive (CE)
-Phonological Loop (PL)
-Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (VSS)
-Episodic Buffer (added in 2000)
-Supporting Evidence

Question 2

Who developed the Working Memory Model and why?

Answer 2

Baddeley & Hitch (1974) proposed it as an alternative to STM in the Multi-Store Model, seeing STM as a multi-component system with separate but interacting stores.

Question 3

What is the role of the central executive (CE)?

Answer 3

The CE directs attention, controls decision-making, and allocates resources to slave systems. It has limited capacity and no storage of its own.

Question 4

What does the phonological loop (PL) do?

Answer 4

The PL handles auditory info and preserves word order. It includes:

Phonological store: inner ear

Articulatory control system: inner voice
Capacity = ~2 seconds of speech.

Question 5

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)?

Answer 5

The VSS processes visual and spatial data. It’s split into:

Visual cache (stores visual info)

Inner scribe (arranges objects in space)
Capacity: ~3–4 objects

Question 6

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 6

Added by Baddeley (2000), the episodic buffer integrates information from the CE, slave systems, and LTM into a single episodic memory trace. It has limited capacity.

Question 7

What evidence supports the WMM?

Answer 7

Dual-task studies show people can do a visual and verbal task simultaneously, but not two visual tasks – supporting the separation of components in working memory.