working memory model (B+H)

Central executive

Very limited processing capacity

Role is to allocate tasks to the 3 slave systems

Phonological loop

Allows for maintenance rehearsal by being made up of articulatory processes (words your hear)

Processes auditory information

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Divided into inner scribe and visual scribe

Can withhold around 4-5 chunks

Combines visual and spatial information

Episodic buffer

integrates all spatial,visual and auditory information

Link STM to LTM

Added in 2000 (little known about it)

Strengths and weakness'

+Studies of dual-task by Baddeley. Each participant took part in a visual/spatial and auditory task. Shows that the slave systems are in competition.

+Shallice and Warrington's study of KF, he had poor STM recall for auditory stimuli but increased STM recall in visual stimuli. This suggests that the processes are seperate (phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad)

-Central executive has not be properly defined. (process is vague) May be made up of sub-components, this lack of knowledge doubts the accuracy of the WMM

+Neuroscanning evidence