The Working Memory model shows STM as being made up of 3 components: The Central Executive, Phonological or articulatory loop & the Visuo Spatial Sketchpad.
The Central Executive supervises and coordinates the subsidiary systems in STM. It goes through the LTM and retrieves information required for particular tasks. In other words it shuts down the unimportant. For example when asked the colour of your car, your CE directs thought to the Visual Spatial Sketch Pad which visualises the car to be able to recall its colour.
The Visuo Spatial Sketchpad analyses and manipulates visual images; images are actually seen in our minds on the “Sketchpad”. Kosslyn and Schwartz who asked participants questions on the boat below proved this:
They found that participants who were asked questions on the front of the boat and then the middle took consistently less time to answer than participants who had to answer questions on the front then the back. This is because our CE has to look to the Visuo Spatial sketchpad, which scans the image in the mind. Going from the front to the middle of the boat takes far less time than going from the back to the front because the back of the boat does not have to be visualised in the mind. This proved that there is an area in our memory, which acts as an “inner eye”.
The Phonological Loop consists of two parts; the Phonological Store holds spoken words for 1 ½ - 2 seconds. Spoken words therefore enter directly but written words have to be converted into articulatory code. The Articulatory Control Process acts like an “inner voice” which rehearses information that enters the store. It also converts written material and translates it to the Phonological store. Baddeley found this in 1997. Baddeley also conducted an experiment on the capacity of the component in 1975. He gave participants a list of both short and long words and found that the list of short words was remembered better because it consisted of less syllables in each word and the sounds were much simpler. (Contrast between some and simultaneous). This was known as The Word Length Effect. People have the ability to gain information within a 2 second capacity into the phonological loop.
Baddeley and Lewis added another component to the model in 1981 called The Primary Acoustic Store. They carried out an experiment where participants were given a list of nonsense words, which were grammatically incorrect but sounded correct and a list of totally ridiculous words including traene, trane, braene, and brane. Participants had to pick out the real words. This was called the Articulatory Suppression Technique. Despite this technique being used, it did not affect participants’ ability to identify words correctly.
Therefore The Working Memory Model did in fact propose a new way of interpreting the processing of information in STM. It showed STM ad a range of components and explained its internal workings. It also showed us that we carry out tasks simultaneously. It also gave a structure to additional study that was later carried out on STM and attention.
This model also supports the study undergone by Butlers on the KF patient whose STM was impaired but LTM was not affected. It was made clear that his verbal but not visual processing was functioning. A Multi – Component Model can only explain this.
Also, in the WM model rehearsal plays a very small role. It only takes place in the phonological loop. It was also suggested that information that we learn in everyday situations as common knowledge is rarely rehearsed yet enters LTM from STM, thus being shown in a multi component system.
However, despite being the most important area of the model we know very little about the CE. We know that its capacity is ltd but not how ltd it is. It also lacks testability as Richardson (84) found that were problems specifying its functions.
Allport also suggested replacing the CE with a system that contains specific processes only but Baddeley contradicted this statement and said it was vital to maintain the CE because it would be confusing to have a system based on specific processes only.
The Working Memory Model proposed a new way of interpreting the processing of information in STM. It showed STM as made up of components. However it is unclear how the Central Executive works or even if it exists therefore there are limitations to the truth of this model.
