Describe and evaluate the Working Memory Model

(12 marks)
AO1 (6 marks) - Describe the model/theory/approach/model
● The Working Memory Model was proposed by Baddeley and Hitch and
replaced the idea of a unitary (simple) short term memory (STM).
● Short-term memory is much more active and complex.
■ E.g STM is believed to be able to complete two different tasks at
the same time.
● Made up of 4 interconnected and interactive components:

● Central Executive
○ Main part - controls other ‘slave’ components and decides which
component is required for the task.
○ Process information from different senses - each sense coded
differently
○ May have to handle more than one task at a time simultaneously
○ In charge of decision-making and reasoning - allocates resources and
time to ‘slave’ components by making a decision on which task is more
important and should be prioritised.
○ Has little to no capacity
○ Decides what Working Memory Model pays attention to

● Phonological Loop
● Codes information acoustically (i.e words and noises)
● Composed of two parts:
○ Primary Acoustic Store:
■ Linked to speech perception
■ STM acoustic information - duration approximately 1-2 seconds
■ Remembers sounds/words in the same order they were
presented
○ Articulatory Process:
■ Linked to speech production
■ Used to rehearse and store sounds collected by Primary
Acoustic Store
■ Capacity - 2 seconds of speech
■ Information for Primary Acoustic Store is repeated in loop to
prevent decay

● Visuo - Spatial Sketchpad

● Codes and rehearses information through visualising mental pictures
● Limited capacity of 3-4 objects
 ● (Logie, 1995) - Can be subdivided into:
○ Visual Cache:
■ Stores visual info about form and colour
○ Inner Scribe:
■ Handles spatial relations (i.e following a mental map)
■ Rehearses and transfers info in visual cache to Central
Executive

● Episodic Buffer (recent - 2000)

● Takes info from Visual-Spatial Sketchpad and Phonological Loop and
integrates them together
● Helps with tasks that require both slave systems
● Is a temporary storage system
● Limited capacity of about four chunks of information
● Links to Long-Term Memory - in case this information is needed by Working
Memory
● It is a two-way communication system

AO3 - Evaluation (1)

P - One strength of the Working Memory Model is that there is scientific research
from brain scans to support the idea that different components of STM are separate
and require different coding.

E - Cohen et al found that when participants were completing a verbal task, brain
activity was higher in the part of the brain known as Broca's area, which is linked to
speech production. However, regions of the occipital lobe which is linked to visual
processing, were activated when participants were asked to complete visual tasks
using the Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad.

E - This is a strength as it provides physical evidence for the existence of the

phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad. It also supports the phonological
loop’s role in auditory and speech based tasks and the visual spatial sketchpad’s
role in visual tasks.

L - Due to the presence of scientific and objective research from brain scans, the
validity of the Working Memory Model increases.

AO3 - Evaluation (2)

P - One weakness of the Working Memory Model is that there is a research to
criticize the idea that the Central Executive is unitary.

E - For example, the case study of patient EVR involved patient EVR having a
tumour removed. As a result of this, EVR performed well on tests which required
reasoning which suggests that his Central Executive was intact. However, he had
poor-decision making skills, as it would take him hours to decide where to eat.

E - This is clearly a weakness as the Central Executive is involved in higher mental

processes, such as reasoning and decision-making. Therefore, if the Central
Executive was a single unitary store, we would assume that the higher mental
processes of patient EVR following the removal of his tumour were completely
normal or completely damaged. However, some processes of CE were intact, some
were damaged, which suggests that there are several components to CE.

L - Due to the existence of refuting evidence of the Central Executive being unitary
from patient EVR, the validity of the Working Memory Model is reduced.

AO3 - Evaluation (3)

P - Another weakness of the Working Memory Model is that it does not take into
account for all types of memory, such as musical memory (instrumental music).

E - For example, Berz (1995) found that participants were able to listen to
instrumental music without impairing performance on other acoustic tasks.

E- This is a weakness as the ppt. were able to carry out the instrumental task along
with the acoustic task, which could suggest that there may be a ‘musical memory’
component that dealt with the instrumental task. However, the Working Memory
Model did not account for all types of memory, such as musical memory.

L - This, therefore, reduces the validity of the Working Memory Model and suggests
that the Working Memory Model is incomplete.

AO3 - Evaluation (4)

P - A strength of the WMM is that there is supporting research for the idea that the
STM stores are separate and have a limited capacity.

E - For example, Baddeley and Hitch found that ppts could do DIFFERENT tasks
that take up capacity in DIFFERENT stores (e.g visual and verbal).

When ppts were asked to complete a verbal task in the Articulatory Loop and a
separate task in the VSSP, recall is not affected. However, when the same ppts were
asked to complete two SIMILAR tasks (i.e both in the Articulatory Loop) then recall
on the first task is affected.

E - This is a strength as it demonstrates that that STM consists of multiple separate

stores of which each has a limited capacity. This is evident as ppts could easily
complete tasks that work on different slave systems, i.e not overloading any of their
capacities.

However, attempts to perform two similar tasks that activate the same slave system
resulted in recall of the first task being impaired and overridden.

L - Increases validity of the WMM